Looking After Goats

Goats like to go out browsing

Goats are creatures who feel the cold and hate the wet, so it has to be a fine, dry day for them to have a walk outside. The leaves are dry and crackly now and this is just how they like them, there is still plenty of browsing. They are foraging on the long grass, the nettles and especially the blackberries, which are their all time favourite food.

Shown here is Belinda, in the front and Biscuit is in the background. These two are very good friends and have been in the sanctuary for several years. Both were rescued from the meat market. Many goats are still being sold for ritual slaughter which is legal in the U.K. We’ve been campaigning against this for many years.

Both Belinda and Biscuit will be mated later this year. They haven’t had any kids since last year. We do breed the goats every other year as they are prone to develop hormonal problems and cystic ovaries if they don’t have kids from time to time. When our goats do have kids we allow them to suckle and stay with their mommies till they are grown up.

We have a new male goat kid called Odi, and he will be the stud goat from now on. Odi is a pedigree Anglo-Nubian (desert goat originating in Biblical times). We are keeping him away from the girls for the time being as we don’t want kids too early. Goats are pregnant for five months so if they are mated too soon they’ll be having their little ones when the weather is still bad. Spring is a good time for goat kids, so Odi will have to wait a little while!

Goats with horns

Why do some goats have horns and others don’t have any? Is it alright to keep them together? The goatkeeper who sent in this query was right to be concerned. She has been offered a horned goat as a companion to her existing female Saanen and our advice would be to say ‘thanks’ but ‘no thanks’.

Horned goats are fine kept together so long as they have plenty of room. Goats without horns get on well together also but when they are mixed the horned goats tend to dominate the rest with sometimes disastrous results. A butt in the stomach from a pair of strong horns can spell death to any kids the female goat is carrying and bruised ribs at the very least.

Goats have a ‘pecking order’ just like most animals, they have the occasional squabble over who sits where and who gets the choicest food. In a hornless goat it’s just a half-hearted ‘dutt’ on the head but the horned goats know they have weapons! They are always dominant and will often give any goat who gets in their way some real aggro.

When it’s summertime and the goats can go out and there’s lots of browsing, there isn’t so much rivalry. It’s a different ball game in winter when goats are penned. Horns and no-horns are an unequal match and have to be separated.

Goats are very companiable creatures and need a herd environment so don’t keep just the one goat unless you have a great deal of time to spend with her. Both male and female goats have horns but most goatkeepers have them removed shortly after the kids are born. It is illegal to do this without an anaesthetic so the vet will carry out the operation as soon as the little horn buds start showing through the skin.

Always let your vet know when your goat has kids and take his advice on when he wants to disbud them. Different vets sometimes vary slightly in their timing on removing horns. The vet will cauterize the horn buds with a hot iron, the kid, so long as properly anaesthetised, won’t feel a thing. In the bad old days kids used to be dis-budded without anaesthetic and it was a cruel procedure. Thankfully, the law doesn’t allow this now.

Ponies share their hay with goats

We put big round bales of hay out for the ponies every week and as soon as the goats are let out they run down to eat it with them. The ponies don’t mind, there is plenty for everyone and they are happy to see their goat friends. The goats have only recently started going out in the fields again, they are Anglo-Nubians and obviously remember that they originated in a hot country. These are the biblical goats you can see in old pictures and they like to be warm and dry. Mud, rain, wind, snow, wet – no thank you! It’s not that the goats need to eat the ponies’ hay, they have racks of hay in their indoor pens. Other people’s food always tastes nicer though doesn’t it?

The young goats are inquisitive and always want to know what’s going. As soon as they see me they leave the adults to come and see if I have anything especially good to give them – Apples? Carrotts? Biscuits? They like these better than anything else although I’m not sure that they are good for them except as an occasional titbit. Goats are curious creatures and, combined with their intelligence and ability to think quickly, this gets them into all sorts of mischief. The ponies are Sundance on the left and Pixie is the woolly brown blur, practically buried in the hay, on the right.

Any help caring for the goats and ponies and helping us to rescue them would be very much appreciated. It’s still legal in the U.K. to ritually slaughter goats. Hard to believe in this so-called civilised world isn’t it? There is no justification for this barbaric method of slaughter. Please help us in our rescues and our campaigns if you can. Even a small amount makes a big difference. We have a direct debit form (£2.00 a month?) and would be delighted to send it to you if you let us have your name and address. Many thanks. [donate]

Are goats factory farmed?

A few years ago and we’d have said ‘no’, this is an impossible concept – goats are animals that above all love freedom and to be able to wander about – goats do roam! There’s even a red wine with this name. The demand for goat’s milk which is now sold in supermarkets has led to the rise in commercial goat production, even though it’s over £1.30 a pint, it sells out every day.

Still, we imagined that goats would be farmed in a similar way to cows (better fencing perhaps) and would be out grazing most days and running in to the barns at night. We’ve recently discovered that this isn’t so. In some commercial goat farms they are kept indoors for the whole of their lives, only leaving the shed to go into the milking parlour and then it’s back again.

These are very large buildings where hundreds of goats live together under intensively farmed conditions. There are central feeding areas where the goats poke their heads through bars to eat a maintenance ration. Above all, goats are intelligent, inquisitive creatures with strong family ties. Although they looked well cared for they are still always inside and with no chance of a natural life. What happens to these thousands of goats when they don’t milk so well? It’s a disturbing question.

All the goats have their horns burned off when they are a few days old, there is no place for horns in intensive farming, it’s said it would make the goats too difficult to handle and that they would injure each other. Kept hundreds to a shed this is likely. There is a risk of extreme pain and even death during the disbudding process. Goats have thin skulls and this is a mutilation after all. Goats kept naturally and with plenty of room do not need to have their horns removed.

However, we’ve been told that in New Zealand, where goats are also farmed for milk production, they do not burn the horns away and that they still manage their herds perfectly well. We’re aiming to find out more about this.

In the commercial herds kids are taken away from the goats soon after birth and reared communally. That’s the female kids only, the male kids are slaughtered as it is deemed too expensive to rear them. They can’t have their mothers milk because it goes to be sold. This has to be distressing for the mothers, goats are very maternal. Eventually they may become numb to what’s happening to them.

So this is something to think about when you go to buy a pint of goat’s milk. I imagined that the goats would be ambling around in meadows, gazing at the sky, picking on thistles, grasses and browsing. As so much in our modern lives, the reality is quite different.

Is this a natural or kind way to keep a goat? Is it in accordance with her natural life? Human’s don’t need dairy at all once we’ve become adult. We may like but it isn’t good for us. We don’t like any animal to be kept intensively. The proposed factory farms for cows are something we oppose absolutely. Traditional farming may not be perfect but it does let cows have their freedom.

Belinda with Buffy and Bafta. She loves her kids and they love their mum.

What is halhal?

Goats are gentle and non-aggressive creatures, they are intelligent and inquisitive and vegetarian. Their diet consists of herbs, leaves, grasses, twigs and grain. They make wonderful companion friends and will follow you about and always want to be with you. A mother goat is devoted to her kids and will maintain ties with them for all of her life. The goat is a social animal and goat friendships and family groupings are lifelong.

We have been rescuing goats for over 35 years. Our ongoing aim is to provide information about these amazing creatures on whom many people depend, especially in the third world. Goats milk is easy to digest and is a lifesaver when there is no other sustenance or cow’s milk cannot be tolerated.

A goat can subsist and provide milk in a habitat that many other domestic animals are unable to thrive in. She will, if sufficient food is available, make enough milk to rear her kids and some to spare for the household.

What has all this to do with halhal meat? Most people don’t know that halhal describes ritually slaughtered meat. It’s a prescribed method (under Islam Law) of slaughtering all animals excluding fish and most sea-life per Islamic law. This method of slaughtering animals consists of using a well sharpened knife to make a swift, deep incision that cuts the front of the throat, the carotid artery, wind pipe and jugular veins but leaves the spinal cord intact. The animal isn’t stunned first.

Many thousands of goats are killed in this way every week in this country. They are sold at markets and go to be ritually slaughtered. It is legal to do this in the U.K.

Halhal meat products are sold in supermarkets, at Meadowhall even. Some baby food is halhal and described as such in the ingredient list.

Many people don’t know what halhal means. What about asking your supermarkets if the meat on the meat counter and in the freezers is guaranteed not to be halhal? Is the meat they sell from a humanely slaughtered (not halhal) source? It would be nice to know and we’d be interested to know their response.

Better still – go vegetarian! Apart from ensuring that no animal will suffer, it’s the healthy option.

Goat kids are growing up

Biscuit continues to be a devoted mother and watches carefully over her kids. Here she is with Pippin, who is the darker coloured of the two. His brother Tog (he has one toggle under his chin!) is not far away. The kids are eating well now and prefer rough grazing with lots of nettles, shrubs and branches. They have breakfast before they go out and this consists of goat mix and rolled oats with a handful or two of bran. Goats are very choosy about what they eat and the bucket has to be clean, they are fastidious animals – the fact that they will relish eating a rose bush or a straw hat has given them an unwarranted reputation for eating anything. Nothing could be further from the truth. They like fibrous plants best though and thrive on tree bark and anything that is crisp and crackly. They don’t like any food that is soggy, perhaps this is because of their desert origins.

Here is Biscuit with Pippin and Tog, these little brothers are inseparable. The goats only go outside on days that are fine, they don’t like wet weather and would get chilled and probably become ill if they were wet. When it’s rainy they stay inside and have a rack of hay to eat and a bowl of Alfafa which you can buy chopped up and ready bagged from the feed merchant. Goats love this and it is high in the nutrients they need. If it’s a fine day and they do go outside, they will always have a nice supper feed to come in to, mostly the same as their morning meal but a bit bigger ration. We give them a variety of food, who wants to eat the same all the time? Sometimes they have sugar beet pulp which has to be soaked first and never in a metal bucket which would make the beet become toxic. Always soak the beet pulp in plastic. There are two sorts of beet – easy beet, which only needs a short time of soaking and traditional which needs about 12 hours, the instructions are on the packet. Beet is soaked because it swells up in the animal’s stomach and can cause colic if it’s eaten dry.

Goats also love apples, carrots and most vegetables. They need a hay rack securely fixed to the wall at goat height and it should be kept racked up with hay at all times. Goats are very prone to digestive upsets – the four stomachs maybe? If they have hay to nibble whenever they want to, things rarely go wrong. An armful of branches or rosebay willow herb is a real treat too.

Goats kids are doing well

Biscuit’s kids are doing well and love to snuggle up together. They are suckling milk from their mother but when they are not feeding they spend most of their time asleep. At this stage, only days old, they have a lot of growing to do and while they can easily stand and follow mum around, they soon get tired and down they go for another siesta. Biscuit is very careful with them, at first there was a mix-up over who was nursing from which teat – they both wanted the same one! But now that’s all sorted out and they both go for their milk together. When a goat is newly kidded she will need careful attention until her udder has ‘settled down’. The act of giving birth makes her produce lots of milk and it’s sometimes too much for the kids to handle when they are so small. The danger is that her udder will become swollen and tender if they are not taking enough milk. Then it will hurt and she won’t want them to suckle. Mastitis is the ever present danger and must be avoided at all costs.

As the kids grow they will take more and more milk and she will stop them feeding by walking on when she thinks they have had enough or she feels uncomfortable. If the goat is an exceptionally heavy milker you might have to milk some of the milk off in the early days. It will be rich and creamy and the cats will love it! Most present day goats have been selectively bred for milk production for many years, they will often give a gallon or more a day. Mountain or wild goats will give nothing like this amount. They’ll just produce enough to rear their kids.

Did I really have two kids? Biscuit still looks quite surprised – she loves them both though and is a devoted mum. This is her first time outside today, most new mothers don’t want to leave their kids at first. I’ve left the door open and she can see the kids and dart back to them if she feels worried. They don’t seem to mind she has left them for a while though.

Newborn kids always lie close together, touching each other all the while. They’ve been entwined for five months already, so it’s not surprising. As soon as the kids were born we sprayed their cords with Gentian Violet spray to prevent infection. It’s the open end of the cord you need to spray, not their navel. Within a day or so the cord will have shrivelled up and nearly disappeared. Mum needs to have a quiet time to get over this marvellous achievement. We don’t shake bedding up or create any disturbance until she is back to normal and ready to go a walk out. Fresh clean water is appreciated and she will want to drink more than usual now that she has kids to feed.

We gave Biscuit bulky high fibre food after she’d kidded, something to fill her up but not high in protein or anything that would create too much milk. She enjoyed a nice bran mash, also some alfafa, lots of apples and carrots and just a sprinkle of oats. We’ll introduce her proper goat rations as she makes more milk. There is always a rack of clean, sweet hay for her to nibble when she feels hungry. The best food for her is natural browsing and just outside her shed there is a patch of rough ground full of docks, thistle, nettles, small bushes and coarse grass – goat heaven!

We don’t leave Biscuit out for very long, she likes a quick burst of munching leaves and then she wants to go back to her babies. It’s best to keep a careful watch over newly kidded goats and their kids. The scent of a newborn animal is attractive to foxes and dogs and the new family should not be left unattended. The same applies to sheep and lambs, calves and foals too – it’s a natural thing – a hungry predator will see the baby animal as lunch! Biscuit goes out only while we are with her and then it’s back to the nursery and giving her kids lots of fuss.

Safety first for goats

Goats have a reputation for being tough creatures who can survive anywhere. Nothing could be further from the truth. If they are in their natural habitat and roaming freely in an environment that suits them, they will be alright, but when kepts as pets or in any domestic situation, there are many hazards. Goats are escape artists, make sure they don’t get tangled up in the fencing. An ill-judged leap or scramble through a gap and a broken leg is the likely outcome.

If your goat is a milker one of the ever present dangers is if she gets caught up in a fence, if she tears her udder it will be a nightmare situation to deal with, you will still have to milk her even though she has had to be stitched up. If you don’t milk her she’ll get mastitis. No matter how small a cut it must not be neglected.

Poisoning is another big danger for goats, it may be that in the wild they develop a sixth sense of what to eat and what not – but they certainly lose this when they are kept in a backyard or on a smallholding. Rhodendron leaves are the worst killer, they are appetising to goats and eating them almost always proves fatal. The vet will try to save the goat and giving powdered charcoal may help, but the outcome is almost a foregone conclusion. There are many other plants that are poisonous to goats – rhubarb leaves are very toxic, privet is too, laburnum. the seeds and leaves are deadly and yew is killer also. There are many more dangerous plants, these are some of the most commonly found poisons and the only way to safety is to keep your goats well away from them. If a goat eats any of them, call the vet immediately. Strangely enough, we have seen goats eating nightshade and also ragwort with no apparent ill effects.

Check the hedges to see if there is anything poisonous growing in there that Miss Goat might fancy for a light snack. Going round the fields and any land the goats have access to is the only sure way to keep them safe. Goats love to roam, is there anything on your neighbour’s land that can harm them? You need super fencing to keep them in if that is the case.

The goat shed can be another hazardous place for the mischievous and inquisitive goat. Watch out for protruding nails or small gaps they can get their feet stuck in. Remove all collars when the goats are indoors – you don’t want a hanging and if there is something they can hook themselves up on, they will do. For the same reason, hay nets should never be used for feeding goats. They paw at them and get their foot stuck, if it twists round, the circulation will be stopped and if you don’t find her in time, she’ll lose her limb. A safe and specially designed hay rack is the only way to provide forage for the goats.

Pick up all the bits of string, baler twine and plastic bags, if a goat eats any of these she will die. You probably won’t know what’s wrong with her, the goat will stop eating and have tummy ache and nothing works – it’s only at the autopsy stage that the problem is found. This is the same for horses and any other animals.

Keep all drinking buckets and tubs spotlessly clean, especially in summer. When sunlight shines on water the result is green algae – this is toxic and makes animals ill, it can even cause death. Check the drinking troughs and keep animals away from stagnant ponds. If they venture into the water it will make them ill, although this is more likely with dogs and horses, the fussy goat doesn’t usually like getting her hooves wet.

When they are outside goats are vulnerable to dog attacks. They have little defence from a determined and aggressive dog. We’ve seen horrific injuries caused by dog attacks so make sure the paddocks are safely fenced and check on the goats regularly. It’s usually the dogs who aren’t used to farm animals who cause the trouble. Some dog owners think their pet is playing with the goats and don’t know what all the fuss is about. The poor goat doesn’t see it like that. If she’s in kid, she is likely to have a miscarriage if she’s been chased. All dogs should be kept on a lead near farm animals, but this rarely happens.

Foxes attack young animals mostly, we have never seen them chasing adult goats. They will definitely take a kid though, just as they take lambs. It’s a food source for them, heartbreaking for us when the sweetest spotted nanny kid has been grabbed. The only solution is to never let mums and newborns out where Mr.Fox is likely to roam. Our kids stay close to quarters until they are well grown.

Goats mostly stay fit and well and out of danger – but it’s obviously sensible to be aware of what could happen just to make sure.

Beginners guide to goat-keeping

Goats live on average between 12 and 16 years. We’ve had them go on for much longer though. They have cloven hooves and an udder with two teats, ideal for rearing a couple of kids. It’s doubtful if more would survive in the wild. It’s a common misconception that goats eat anything. The truth is that they are the most fussy eaters imaginable and are very fastidious. They like to browse, wandering about and picking a few leaves here and there – goats like to eat deep rooted plants – trees, bushes, shrubs, herbs and anything twiggy – the rose garden especially. They have only one set of teeth, on their lower jaw, the top jaw has a hard palate, it’s still difficult to see how they can eat thistles and holly with such ease!

Goats should never be kept singly, they are herd animals with a strong sense of ‘family’ and they like to be in social group. There is always a pecking order though and one of them will be the ‘alpha’ female and they’ll all follow her lead. Female goats have no particular scent, they do not smell at all, except for the male goats who have a musky odour. The scent gland of a male is behind his horns and you can have it removed when he is disbudded, it will only take a second and then he will not smell either.

Goats nearly always grow horns and this is a problem if you are keeping them in fairly close quarters. The dominant goat is not averse to giving another member of the herd a ‘dutt’ with her horns if they are in a squabble over food or sleeping places. Unless you are keeping a herd of goats running out on a moor or large area, it is better to have them disbudded shortly after they are born. This is done by the vet who cauterizes the horn buds before they have had a chance to grow. Goats without horns are easy to handle and much friendlier with each other. This is a clannish species who like their own goat friends and sometimes resent newcomers. Goats invariably love their people though and this is one of the most affectionate of the animal species. The temperament of a goat is like that of a very loving dog the difference being that they don’t like you just for food, they like you just for being you.

One of the best ways to start in goatkeeping is to buy a couple of female kids. If they are being bottle reared you will have to find out the amount of milk and routine and then off you go – it’s like having a new baby, so make sure you have plenty of time. You can buy kid bottles and all milking utensils from farming supply shops. The bottles have to be kept very clean and sterilized every day. Or you could purchase a goatling, which is a young goat that hasn’t been mated, she’ll be in her first year of adult life and have left the baby bottles far behind. Young male goats are called bucklings.

It’s difficult to keep a male goat as a pet as all he’ll think about is being with a herd and mating. But you can get a couple of castrated male kids and rear them, they don’t develop any of the stud male characteristics and so long as they have been disbudded and de-musked will make interesting and affectionate companions.

Goats need shelter at all times – they also need freedom – exercise and fresh air. They are animals that are accustomed to walking and climbing, they like nothing better than to get up as high as possible. The problem is how to keep them in and they are masters at escape. (fencing article coming soon).

If you want the goat to keep you in milk then you will have to get her mated when she is eighteen months old. Goats come in season every three weeks in the winter months, apart from the Anglo Nubian breed who can come in season all year round. You’ll know your goat is on heat because she will be bleating non-stop. This is when you take her to the stud goat to be mated. There are goat clubs in most areas and they will tell you who has a stud goat. Or you can join the British Goat Society and they have lots of information. Getting your goat mated is without any difficulty, put her in with the stud goat and blink or you’ll miss it – there you are, she’s in kid. Watch out for her coming in season again in three weeks time (it’s called coming over) – if she does, you’ll have to take her back to be mated again. Goatkeepers don’t like to call their goats ‘nannies’ or ‘billies’ – they are females or does or stud males or bucks.

Goats are valuable animals, they can turn unusable scrub ground into delicious milk and with supplementary feeding will provide enough to rear their kids and some left over for the household. Goats are in kid for five months and usually manage their kidding without help. They need a clean shed with plenty of straw and some privacy. This is the one time when the goat will want to leave her friends and be on her own. Goats are wonderful mothers and we think it’s unkind to take the kids away when they are born. Some people do this because they don’t want them to suckle as they want the milk. We like to leave kids with mum so she can fuss and nuzzle them. If we want to bottle feed them we make a small pen in a corner and put them there so mum can still fuss them. Bottle fed kids are very tame, those reared on mum are less so.

Goats are affectionate companions who like to be with you and will go for walks just like a dog. They don’t like to be put on a lead though, they prefer to amble alongside so they eat as they go. Who is taking who for a walk? They are time consuming to care for but fit in very well with a self sufficiency/ gardening type of lifestyle. If you like independence and to provide your own food, then there is nothing better than to take up goat keeping. These gentle and intelligent animals will give you milk, cheese, butter and yoghurt – fresh and uncontaminated and without preservatives and additives. What could be better?

Goats do roam

They are browsing animals and want to be on the move all the time – the grass is always greener over the horizon for Miss Goat. If you live in an area where they can run free and do as they please all day, you will find that they come back home at night or when they are ready for a siesta. Goats like to lie down and chew the cud at regular intervals and prefer to do this close to home, so they like to come and go as they please. Goats will also dash for home whenever rain approaches. They hate rain and will run back to their shed whenever they feel the first spot. In America there is a goat weather station, where a goat farm is opposite local radio. Apparently they base the weather forecast on what the goats are doing! I am sure this will be as accurate as any other forecast, goats are good predictors of the weather. Keeping goats free range is the most ideal system, for them and for you. The trouble is that most of us have boundaries, fences, neighbours with gardens and once your goats have explored and eaten all the goodies on your patch they will want to move on. Fencing to keep a goat in has to be up to jailbreak standards! Miss Goat can go under, over, through and she is clever enough to open gates and untie latches and fasteners. The fencing has to be safe too or there will be broken legs and torn udders.

Hedging - a thick, mature hawthorn hedge has a good chance of keeping the goats securely in their place. While they will nibble at the leaves, they rarely go through it especially if it has been properly ‘laid’. A roll of sheep netting tacked to it in the winter will make it more secure. Never use barbed wire anywhere near goats (or horses). It’s inevitable that they will get caught up in it and hurt themselves – bloodbath and barbed wire go together – it’s cruel stuff that can cause horrific injury. A holly hedge will usually keep goats in, the problem is that both these bushes are slow to grow (the holly especially) and unless you have them already established you will have to wait a long time before they are any use. A newly planted hedge will be a nice snack if your goats get anywhere near it.

Post and rail is very good but it is expensive and goats have a habit of propping their front feet on the bottom rail to reach up and see over or get to a particularly appetising looking branch. Eventually they’ll loosen the rail and then there is a gap for you to fix or they are through. Post and rail has to be re-inforced with sheep netting, which is wire squares on a 25mt or 50 metre roll. You’ll have to staple this tightly to the fence, if it’s loose it will be dangerous and your livestock will get tangled up in it. Sheep netting works well so long as it is high enough so the goats don’t jump over it and taught enough so they don’t get their legs fast. A top rail is the best way to keep the fence secure and bear in mind that goats are able to get to quite a height when they stand on their hind legs.

Electric fencing - is just about the only system that works – the goats don’t like the mild tingle they get when they touch the fence and they’ll stay well away. We find it’s best if it’s put a little way in front of a traditional fence. You can use plastic fence posts or thin wooden stakes with plastic noggins on and thread the fence wire or tape along as far as you want. If you have mains electric fencing you can go on right round the fields, it maintains the charge over a tremendous distance. The wooden fence provides a visual marker for the goat and the electric wire keeps her away from it. Problem solved! When you have the electric fence on its own, there’s a chance that some goats will have a cavalry charge and go through it. Once they’ve done that once, it’s difficult to stop them the next time. Battery electric fencing works nearly as well, over a shorter distance though. There is a problem though and it’s not because of the goats. You can’t stop the unit being stolen. Sad people.

It’s all about food - goats want to get out to find fresh food. They are pernickety eaters, always searching for a fresh and tasty morsel. Their desire is to eat deep-rooted plants and a grass field doesn’t suit them. Woodland or scrub land is what they like most of all. If the trees are mature they usually leave them alone, they will strip all the saplings and young growth however. Goats eat most bushes, vegetables and flowers, they adore roses and although they only have one set of teeth (on the lower jaw) and a soft palate on the upper jaw, they will devour the whole stems thorns and all. I watched the goats grazing earlier in the week. I had them out for an early evening stroll – first they attacked the hawthorns, then some dandelions and docks, then elderflower branches, then grass, then nibbled at some low hanging larch, then grass, then finished up devouring some sycamore saplings. They were obviously contented when they ambled back to their goat house. This was a perfect goat supper and one they particularly enjoyed because they had a goat herd out with them – me!

We continue to campaign against ritual slaughter of goats, which is still legal in the U.K. and we rescue and provide a permanent home for as many goats as we are able. Any help you can give these gentle and affectionate creatures will be of tremendous benefit and much appreciated. [donate]