Mutilations of Goats
Goats are adapted to the farm environment, instead of vice versa
Farmed goats are subjected to several painful interventions. These interventions are mostly carried out without anaesthesia and pain relief. Why? For more economic efficiency and thus cheaper animal-derived products.
Castration without anesthesia and pain relief
Laparoscopic artificial insemination
Ear tagging, ear notching, tattooing
Dehorning, disbudding
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Dehorning, disbudding
- Purpose: To prevent animals injuring each other or the staff in a restricted space. It is a supposed solution for inappropriate animal husbandry1. Today’s goat keeping systems do not meet the needs of the animals and therefore injuries do occur and are used as arguments to perform disbudding or dehorning.
- Procedure:
- Disbudding/dehorning: Before the horns erupt, the horn buds of kids are destroyed mainly thermally (burnt out with a cautery iron), but also chemically (caustic paste) or surgically (cut out with a spoon). Because the horn buds are rich in nerves, disbudding is very painful – and yet it is often done without anaesthesia or any pain relief. These procedures bear the risk of sinusitis as well as brain and cerebral membrane injuries, causing high mortality, because of the specific position of goat horn buds, the horn forming tissue and the skullcap2. Even if the procedure-related injuries do not occur, there are still painful short- and long-term consequences, as well as distress during handling.
- Dehorning: The already existing horns are removed (with saw or pliers). This procedure is not as common as disbudding as it is even more invasive, painful and dangerous for the animals.
- Information: Disbudding/dehorning is a supposed solution for inappropriate animal husbandry (poor management, housing, handling, human-animal relationship), which will not reduce agonistic reactions, but change the type of injury from open wounds by horns to subcutaneous traumas in deeper muscle areas or bones caused by the head skulls. The general risk for injuries and social stress can be minimised by providing more space, adapting the barn construction, better management, and establishing a good human-animal relationship.
- FOUR PAWS demands: A ban on the disbudding and dehorning of goats. The horn buds of goats are extremely sensitive. Appropriate farming methods do not require the amputation of body parts. Barn management should be improved to allow species-specific behaviour of horned goats.
Castration without anaesthesia and pain relief (common practice in males)
- Purpose: To prevent the ‘goaty’ odour of the meat of males, and to curb their fertility. The rams become less aggressive and therefore more manageable3.
- Procedure: There are several ways castration can be performed:
- The most common way in goats is with the use of a rubber ring, which obstructs blood supply, causing atrophy within 4 to 6 weeks. This method is accompanied with possible chronic inflammation, sepsis, and more pain.
- Less commonly performed is surgical castration (knife/scalpel), and castration with a clamp castrator (Burdizzo) that crushes the spermatic cords and causes swelling, inflammation, and immense pain.
- All these methods are very painful and yet mostly done without anaesthesia and (sufficient) pain relief.
- Information: Nowadays these options are available that make the suffering of kids during castration unnecessary and are acceptable from an animal welfare point of view: vaccination that prevents the release of male hormones (immunocastration) or surgical castration (scalpel) by a vet with anaesthesia and multi-modal pain relief.
- FOUR PAWS demands: The castration of (male) goats must be carried out by a vet, with anaesthesia and multi-modal pain relief. No rubber ring! Alternatives to castration should preferably be used like vaccination (immunocastration).
Ear tagging, ear notching, tattooing
- Purpose: Identification
- Procedure:
- Ear tagging: the ears are pierced to fix ear tags
- Ear notching: pliers are used to remove a small piece of the goat's ear
- Tattooing: penetrating the goat’s skin with a sharp needled tool to insert ink under the skin
All methods are causing pain4 and are mostly done without anaesthesia and pain relief.
- FOUR PAWS demands: A ban of painful and mutilating identification methods.
Laparoscopic artificial insemination
- Purpose: To improve breeding success rates, does are artificially inseminated.
- Procedure: Does are restrained in a special cradle. Two incisions are made directly onto the goats´ abdomen, the belly is inflated with air and inspected with the laparoscope, and then inseminated through another channel. There is no pain alleviation available for the animal during and after the procedure. There is only mild sedation during surgery, which is not obligatory but used only for easier handling of the animal (and does not alleviate pain).
- Information: There is evidence that intrauterine AI with laparotomy can be associated with several complications.5
- FOUR PAWS demands: A ban on laparoscopic artificial insemination.
FOUR PAWS demands regarding mutilations of goats:
- A ban on the disbudding and dehorning of goats. The horn buds of goats are extremely sensitive. Appropriate farming methods do not require the amputation of body parts. Barn management should be improved to allow species-specific behaviour of horned goats.
- The castration of (male) goats must be carried out by a vet, with anaesthesia and multi-modal pain relief. No rubber ring! Alternatives to castration should preferably be used like vaccination (immunocastration).
- A ban of painful and mutilating identification methods.
- A ban on laparoscopic artificial insemination.
Source
1. Kongara K, Singh P, Venkatachalam D, Chambers JP. Pain Assessment in Goat Kids: Focus on Disbudding. Animals. 2023;13(24):3814. doi:10.3390/ani13243814
2. Hempstead MN, Waas JR, Stewart M, Sutherland MA. Goat kids are not small calves: Species comparisons in relation to disbudding. Animal Welfare. 2020;29(3):293–312. doi:10.7120/09627286.29.3.293
3. Chen Y-A, Chen J-Y, Chen W-Q, Wang W-Y, Wu H-H. Effects of Castration Age on the Growth Performance of Nubian Crossbred Male Goats. Animals. 2022;12(24):3516. doi:10.3390/ani12243516
4. Steagall PV, Bustamante H, Johnson CB, Turner PV. Pain management in farm animals: focus on cattle, sheep and pigs. Animals : an Open Access Journal from MDPI. 2021;11(6):1483. doi:10.3390/ani11061483
5. Sathe SR. Laparoscopic Artificial Insemination Technique in Small Ruminants—A Procedure Review. Frontiers in Veterinary Science. 2018 [accessed 2023 Dec 20];5. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2018.00266
2. Hempstead MN, Waas JR, Stewart M, Sutherland MA. Goat kids are not small calves: Species comparisons in relation to disbudding. Animal Welfare. 2020;29(3):293–312. doi:10.7120/09627286.29.3.293
3. Chen Y-A, Chen J-Y, Chen W-Q, Wang W-Y, Wu H-H. Effects of Castration Age on the Growth Performance of Nubian Crossbred Male Goats. Animals. 2022;12(24):3516. doi:10.3390/ani12243516
4. Steagall PV, Bustamante H, Johnson CB, Turner PV. Pain management in farm animals: focus on cattle, sheep and pigs. Animals : an Open Access Journal from MDPI. 2021;11(6):1483. doi:10.3390/ani11061483
5. Sathe SR. Laparoscopic Artificial Insemination Technique in Small Ruminants—A Procedure Review. Frontiers in Veterinary Science. 2018 [accessed 2023 Dec 20];5. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fvets.2018.00266