Goats are kept as companions, for dairy, and for meat — with welfare challenges that include their strong motivation to climb, browse, and engage in complex social behaviour.
Goat welfare is often treated as an afterthought relative to cattle and sheep, despite goats being the most numerous livestock species globally. Their intelligence and strong behavioural drives — curiosity, climbing, browsing — mean that inadequate environments cause boredom and frustration. Disbudding without analgesia is painful and inhumane. Social isolation causes distress measurable through vocalisation and cortisol. The relatively small scale of welfare science attention to goats relative to their global numbers represents a significant welfare gap that needs addressing.