Gemini Farm Sanctuary  ~  Rome, PA              
    
A 501c3, Rescue, Rehabilitation, and Sanctuary
for domestic pets and farm animals in need.

Goats, as many other species, are very social and herd oriented. This means that adopting a goat should include two goats in order to meet the emotional needs of this speices. Many people feel that the goat will bond to them and they can be a substitute family and in some rare occassions this is true. But more often than not, the human family looses interest and the lone goat is left at the end of a chain or locked up in a stall...alone, in solitary confinement. This, in our opinion, is not good management and is inhumane. If purchasing or adopting a single goat they should have a barn buddy of some sort. The barn buddy can be a horse, cow, sheep or other herd animal that will allow the goat to join the barn family.

Unneutered male goats reach sexual maturity quickly. Once mature they may become cranky and all the playful head butting that they practiced with their human family as a baby will become serious and dangerous as a mature unneutered adult. Pet male goats should never be left unneutered.

Unneutered male goats have very dirty sexual habits which are the reason that most lose their pet homes within a year. They smell like old urine because they urinate on their beards in order to make themselves more attractive to female goats. They will also urinate on you thinking that it's a compliment to be marked by him as part of his harem. This unpleasant sexual behavior is the reason that many male goats get the name STINKY. Pet male goats should always be neutered...we know we are repeating ourselves but we cannot stress this enough.

Goats are prime targets for dogs...even the sweet family pet can be motivated to chase and kill after watching a goat bounce and play. Failure to protect them from predators could lead to a disaster.

Goats are very hard to keep fenced and once out of their fenced area they can get into a LOT of trouble. See below.

Goats love to sample all sorts of green vegetation which means they love to browse in gardens and landscaped yards...often destroying valuable plants and trees. It also means they are more likely to be poisoned because their curiousity got the better of them.

Goats love to jump on things and explore. Failure to keep them in means they may choose to jump on cars, porches, people and anything else that looks inviting. Goats need regular veterinary care just as other family pets. They can get rabies and are constantly in jeopardy of getting both internal and external parasites.