Meat goats raised globally face welfare challenges including inadequate shelter, poor pain management for routine procedures and long-distance live transport to slaughter in regions with limited welfare regulation.
Meat goat welfare sits in the regulatory shadow of more commercially significant livestock species. As animals farmed predominantly in smallholder systems across Asia, Africa and parts of Europe, goats receive limited welfare attention compared to pigs and poultry. Yet their welfare needs are substantial: they are social, inquisitive animals that suffer from barren environments, painful procedures without analgesia and the stress of long-distance transport to slaughter markets. In intensive meat goat systems in higher-income countries, welfare standards are emerging but remain below those applied to cattle and sheep in the same jurisdictions. Extending welfare consideration to goats requires both recognition of their cognitive and social complexity and regulatory frameworks that reach smallholder production systems through extension services and incentive programs rather than purely punitive enforcement.