“Brett” the goat apparently avoided being butchered by a group of carnivorous football fans Friday after he was found painted, partially shaved and tied up in a car trunk at the Minnesota-Wisconsin border.

It started when a 20-something woman came in to Tires Plus in Winona, Minn., across the Mississippi River from Wisconsin, where James Prusi was working Friday morning.

One of the engine belts of the woman’s Chevy Malibu was busted. Prusi said he would call when it was ready.

“Oh, by the way, there’s a goat in my trunk,” the woman added as she was getting ready to leave.

“There’s a what?”

“A goat. … It’s alive, but we’re going to butcher it,” the woman said, flashing a “kind of nervous smile,” according to Prusi.

“She was probably anticipating how I was going to take it,” Prusi said in an interview Monday.

Prusi really didn’t know how to take it. He glanced at a co-worker, and the two exchanged bewildered looks.

“We specialize in brakes, alignment and tires. Don’t really know how to fix goats,” Prusi said in the interview. “I didn’t take it any further. I didn’t ask her why.”

The woman left, and soon afterward, the goat started bleating.

“It was crying loud, almost sounded like it was a kid,” Prusi said.

The Tires Plus crew opened the trunk, and the goat stuck out its head. Prusi said the side he could see was painted purple, and there were paint smears from the other side that looked like they might have been green or gold.

The numeral 4 — a number that earned new fans and alienated old ones when former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre signed with the Minnesota Vikings last week — was shaved into the goat’s side. Its legs were tied.

“We couldn’t goat-sit all night,” Prusi said, so the crew shut the trunk, but the goat started making noise after another 10 minutes. Prusi called animal control, who told them they’d be right out.

When the woman came back about 90 minutes after dropping off the car, she was accompanied by a man her age carrying a child about 3 years old. Prusi tried not to ask any questions.

“I wanted to keep my conversation with them to a minimum. I felt guilty turning them in,” Prusi said. “But they were torturing this poor goat.”

Within a few minutes, an animal-control officer showed up, accompanied by two Winona police cars. The animal-control officer took the goat and the couple left in the woman’s car. Prusi said he didn’t hear what authorities said to her.

Prusi said that the woman’s car had Minnesota plates and that she had a St. Paul address. He said neither she nor the man or child had any football team paraphernalia to identify their loyalties.

“There’s Vikings and Packers fans mixed” in Winona, Prusi said. “It’s about 50-50 here.”

Favre’s debut with the Vikings was Friday night in a 17-13 preseason victory over the Kansas City Chiefs at the Metrodome.

Animal control took the goat to a local veterinarian, according to the Associated Press. It was renamed Brett and placed in foster care.

An animal-control officer informed Prusi that the goat, about a year old, was “malnourished and skinny.”

Animal-control officer Wendy Peterson said Monday that the Winona city attorney is reviewing the case for possible citations, according to the Associated Press.

Tad Vezner can be reached at 651-228-5461.