Dairy goat production is expanding globally to meet demand for goat milk and cheese. The welfare of dairy goats deserves more attention than it currently receives from welfare advocates and regulators.
Dairy goat welfare is frequently overlooked because goat products are often associated with smallholder or artisan production. However, industrial dairy goat systems have the same fundamental welfare problems as dairy cattle systems: repeated pregnancy for milk production, early separation of kids, killing of male kids as an economic by-product, and in intensive systems, denial of natural behaviour. Painful disbudding without anaesthesia is standard in many operations. The artisan marketing of goat dairy products can obscure these realities. Welfare advocates should apply the same scrutiny to dairy goat supply chains as to dairy cattle systems.