There exists a written advise of the ayatollah Khomeiny himself, that on the days your wife is “impure”, you should content yourself with a young goat. So that is a Shiah thing, and Theo van Gogh, the Dutch cineast who was murdered, might be murdered mainly because of his consequent insult calling Muslims “goatfuckers”, not making any difference, whereas there are actually very few Shiites in Holland. But in Shiah Afghanistan the Dutch troops encountered this common practice everywhere. No, it is no myth at all, poor little goats.
I hope this was helpful.