The dairy goat industry is growing rapidly worldwide, but welfare standards lag behind those in dairy cattle despite goats having equally complex social and physical needs that intensive systems often fail to meet.
Dairy goat welfare has received far less research and regulatory attention than dairy cattle welfare, despite the animals having similarly complex needs. Goats are often assumed to be robust and undemanding, but this perception is inaccurate — they are sensitive, social animals that suffer in barren environments and from painful routine procedures carried out without pain relief. The rapid growth of the dairy goat industry is outpacing the development of welfare standards, creating a risk that scaling intensification will replicate the welfare failures seen in intensive dairy cattle production without the benefit of decades of welfare science.