Goats are intelligent, curious animals whose welfare in farming depends on social housing, environmental complexity, appropriate nutrition, and management that respects their active, inquisitive nature.
Goat welfare encompasses their social, physical, and cognitive needs in ways that are often underappreciated in smallholding and commercial contexts. Their intelligence — comparable to dogs in problem-solving ability — means that barren environments with little to investigate produce boredom and frustration expressed as fence-testing, escaping, and destructive behaviour. Providing browsers with browse material, raised platforms, and varied objects to explore and manipulate substantially improves welfare and reduces management problems from escaping and boredom. Social housing is fundamental — single goats show vocalisation distress, reduced feed intake, and elevated stress hormones that indicate genuine welfare compromise. Disbudding without anaesthesia causes painful procedures on young kids; best practice requires local anaesthesia as a minimum standard. Parasite management requires faecal egg counting and targeted selective treatment rather than routine blanket dosing, which drives resistance while providing poor welfare benefit for animals with low parasite burdens. Regular hoof trimming prevents the lameness and pain that develops rapidly in overgrown hooves. Goat welfare in smallholdings is particularly variable and often poor due to inadequate knowledge and underprovision of veterinary care.