Sheep and goat dairy production shares welfare challenges with cow dairy including kid and lamb separation, male byproduct disposal, and high-production genetics.
Sheep and goat dairy welfare mirrors cow dairy welfare in its fundamental problems: the productive female is valuable, her young are commodities or byproducts. Male kids and lambs who cannot produce milk are often killed at birth or sold for meat at very young ages. Separation causes mutual distress. The artisanal framing of sheep and goat dairy products does not reliably indicate better welfare unless specifically certified.