Dairy goat farming is growing rapidly to meet demand for goat milk products, but welfare standards in this sector receive less attention than cow dairy.
Dairy goats kept in intensive indoor systems cannot express their natural browsing, climbing, and ranging behaviours. Disbudding of young kids using a hot iron causes acute pain and potentially chronic neuropathic pain at the wound site. The killing of male dairy kids replicates welfare problems seen in the dairy cow sector. The rapid growth of the sector risks replicating the welfare failures of conventional dairy farming.