Ulseth's job is to patrol the river, looking for any signs of pollution, fish kills or sewer spills, according to Atlanta news station WSB-TV. It was just as Ulseth was conducting his patrol in Cobb County that he discovered "white lumps" that turned out to be the headless goats.
He counted at least 10 goat corpses floating down the river.
"This is pretty disturbing," Ulseth told the station. "Personally, I've been patrolling this river for over 11 years, and I have never seen anything like this."
As an official with the Chattahoochee Riverkeeper, an environmental advocacy organization in the Peach State, Ulseth lacked the authority to remove the goats, so they ultimately just kept on floating.
However, he did take the opportunity to urge locals and those responsible for the murders that dumping the animals in the river caused harm to the local drinking water.
"People that are dumping in this river go home and drink it out of their taps," Ulseth said. "And they don't make that connection that they're actually polluting their own water source."
The 430-mile long river supplies 70 percent of metro Atlanta's drinking water, which amounts to more than 300 million gallons a day, website Georgia River Network reported.