The chair of Vancouver's park board says she's outraged at the possible slaughter of goats that used to live at the Stanley Park farmyard.

Board officials held a news conference Sunday afternoon to respond to a news report that the animals may have been auctioned for slaughter by a Langley farm owner.

The goats were shipped off to Langley when the Children's Farmyard in Stanley Park closed last year.

Board chair Constance Barnes says staff visited the farm this week and a dozen goats are unaccounted for.

"I'm outraged. I am absolutely outraged," Barnes said.

"[This was] a promise not only to the Vancouver park board but this was a promise to the people of Vancouver that these animals would be taken, that these animals would be loved and looked after and would live out a long, healthy life."

Barnes says anyone who took animals from the farmyard signed a contract promising not to sell, trade or give the animals away without the park board's consent.

"I have ordered a full review of the treatment of animals adopted by area farms and citizens following the closure of the Stanley Park farm a year ago," she said.

"In light of this alleged mistreatment, I have asked staff to immediately follow up with the 12 other adopting families to verify the condition of animals that were adopted at the closure of the farm."

Barnes said she has asked city lawyers to take "aggressive legal action" under the agreement signed by the farm owner at the time of adoption.

The name of the farm has not been released.