Does anyone know how goats are treated on dairy farms?

Filed under: Goats |

dairy goats
Image by eszter
Yum!

This is #268 in my Project 365 series.

Question by mocha: Does anyone know how goats are treated on dairy farms?
are they treated any better than the cow’s, the same or worse?

Can you help? Leave your own answer in the comments!

Have something to add? Please consider leaving a comment, or if you want to stay updated you can subscribe to the RSS feed to have future articles delivered to your feed reader.

8 Responses to Does anyone know how goats are treated on dairy farms?

  1. Why don’t you visit one and see for yourself. While I think it’s really sweet of you to think about those less fortunate than yourself, no matter what you do, there will always be an animal somewhere getting beaten or mistreated. You should just move on and try to fight for a cause that matters. Like the environment, cancer, or war.

    babystar517507
    December 4, 2011 at 4:11 pm
    Reply

  2. It depends on the farm. And don’t worry about what she said above you. THere do need to be groups who help even the smallest issue in America. Because if no one wants to help even a goat, then when will the lack of help stop? But depending on the farm, I would say goats are probably no better treated than cows are.

    Aki T
    December 4, 2011 at 4:21 pm
    Reply

  3. Same, I give mine twice daily massages.

    wahoo10001
    December 4, 2011 at 4:35 pm
    Reply

  4. thats a vague question…are you implying that all cows are treated poorly? i’m sure it’s like anything else, some have it pretty nice while some not-so-nice.

    fetchdog
    December 4, 2011 at 5:17 pm
    Reply

  5. I really dont know how they’re treated. I was wondering the same question the other day. There seems to be a pretty big demand lately for goats milk soaps, cheeses and dairy. I dont know if its increased recently or that i’ve only just become aware of it since goin vegan. but I guess with any animals used for commercial purposes the primary concern is making money, not necessarily the animals welfare. I haven’t ever been to a commercial goat farms, so I cant say for sure. There’s a cute little family of goats that I see every morning on the train to work… they have lots of land and grass and look happy. but I think they’re someones pets, not used for commercial purposes. i’d avoid the goat products to be on the safe side, there are plenty of non animal alternatives. nice that some one else care about the goats too. =0)

    hala
    December 4, 2011 at 5:37 pm
    Reply

  6. Most goats raised for dairy are on a much smaller scale than a cattle dairy farm…..there just simply isn’t a big demand for goat milk in most places (in the U.S.). Most goats are hand milked and are pastured but again, it’s different because there are very few commercial goat farms on a big scale. People who choose to raise goats by hand for themselves or local consumption usually choose goats (myself included at one time) because of their personality and size (much easier to handle than a full grown cow).

    dichotomymom
    December 4, 2011 at 5:38 pm
    Reply

  7. They are treated better, because they roam free, unlike the cows who get put into pumping stalls. But its still ok, to drink cow milk, don’t worry about it.

    MeatEater
    December 4, 2011 at 6:23 pm
    Reply

  8. It all depends. There are good farms and bad farms, good farmers and bad ones.
    Some cow dairys are really nice and some goat dairys are horrible.
    Animals don’t milk well when they aren’t treated well, so poor dairys go out of business pretty fast.

    sarah s
    December 4, 2011 at 6:49 pm
    Reply

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *