Livestock Guardian Dog & Granny help new mama clean off baby Sofie. Is this abusive, too? |
OK, so that’s kind of a strong
statement to lead off with. But, dammit, reactive “animal rights” activists make
me so mad I could spit. Spit, dammit. And my day started off so well, too.
I was drinking my coffee on this
fine Labor Day when Katherine told me about a Facebook tirade on our friend’s
page. The friend had posted a memory of her all-time favorite goat. In this
happy memory, the goat and girl were smiling for the camera with ribbons
galore. To protect the innocent, I will not share the exact picture but here’s
something similar to give you the idea.
Katherine and Pupa |
The sad part of the post is that
the goat died in kidding later that year, much to the dismay of the young
breeder. Hence the commemorative 1-year memory.
We’ve all been there. I’ve written about the intense emotions of raising goats. Long days and nights
waiting for a goat to go into labor, watching for subtle signs, rushing home
from school, burning rubber out of the driveway at 2:00am to help someone else’s
goat in labor. Hours in the barn/garage waiting for a goat to give birth. The unimaginable
stress of a complicated birth: pullers, lube, various repositioning techniques,
crying goats, crying people. Tears of unadulterated frustration, tears of
abject grief.
And that’s not even when you have
to make the hard call to put a goat down. In that scenario multiply all of the
above by 10.
So, back to our friend’s post.
There she is smiling with her now-deceased favorite goat. The post was meant to
pay homage to her goat, to her relationship with her pet, and to her love for
this animal. Back in early 2018 when she put her goat down, she posted photos
of her “tribute wall” to her goat: a wall full of ribbons, plaques and photos attesting
to the wonderful partnership of the goat and its handler. Awww, big smiles.
That’s why we are “in goats.”
The memory included a collage of
photos about her goat. Again, to protect her identity and privacy, I won’t use
her photos. But I will include a similar montage of our own goat. (We adored
this goat and the myriad of life experiences we had with her. She lived 11 or 12
wonderful years and taught us so much.)
Pupa |
At first, the responses to our friend
were all normal – like, like, like, “that was last year!,” love, tears, etc. But
then… there was this left-field response:
I scratched my head in baffled
confusion.
Slaughter? Um, what slaughter? The goat
was euthanized after a bad kidding. Her owner was right there with her the
entire time – scratching her shoulder and holding her hoof. Slaughter? What the
hell? And … Jesus…? What does he have to do with this? Protein? It’s as if we
were transported to parallel universe where you say one thing and the “universal
translator” comes up with something totally different.
Universal Translator at Work |
Our friend responds: “She wasn’t
slaughtered? She was a beloved pet.” (Duh).
The Activist responds:
Um, right-o. Our buddy can account
for each and every one of her goats. Not just their whereabouts, either. In
fact, I will bet you $10 right here and now that she could recite--off the top
of her head--the registered show name, barn name and three degrees of pedigree for
each and every one of her goats… AS WELL AS their favorite treats and individual
idiosyncrasies. I know Katherine can. I just asked her.
And we aren’t talking about one or
two goats here; these girls have 50-100 goats at any given time.
Where is this verbal abuse about
“animal abuser,” “Jesus” and “protein” coming from? I’m disappointed to say
that, after stalking my friend’s page, this is not the first false accusation
of goat abuse she has received.
My buddy is a better person than I,
‘cuz I woulda blasted The Activist. Like a true Christian, my friend let it go.
What really frosts me is that The Activist
jumped on this post making some blatantly wrong assumptions. She viewed the post
through her “save-the-animals-from-the-evil-humans” filter. And then she
reacted. Without thinking. (As my dear ex-husband used to say, “There’s a
difference between being open minded and having a hole in your head.)
The Activist obviously didn’t read any
further on my friend’s page or she would’ve seen a slew of loving posts about baby
goats, about piling goats into the cab of her truck when the trailer got a flat
tire, about preferring goats to people, etc. etc. Totally normal stuff in the
Pygmy Goat World.
So, how did The Activist even find
my buddy? All I can figure is that The Activist was trolling around Facebook
doing some random search or another--maybe “goat”? But wait. I just did that
search and got this:
Certainly nothing about
slaughtering goats. Or maybe those search results are based on my preferences?
On a complicated algorithm I’m certain. Facebook seems to think I like cute
videos of animals (which I do).
So, what does Facebook think The Activist
likes to see? Yikes. If you include “slaughter” in your search you do come across
some gruesome images and videos. But, not about Pygmy Goats. And not about my
friend.
I know my friend has an active and
successful breeding and sales program, and I suspect she sources a lot of sales
off of Facebook (since Katherine does, too). But, again, if you search “goat
sales” you get lots of cute baby goat photos.
I have yet to unravel this
mystery. Perhaps The Activist and her buds are targeting my friend? God knows why, though. (Oooo, there it is … I invoked
religion…! Per The Activist’s accusation.)
I remember a story in the newspaper
a while back about an Animal Rights group (that shall remain nameless lest I
use my voice as free advertising). In the middle of the night they raided a goat
farm based on some misguided notion that the goats were being mistreated.
They found a baby goat with a runny
nose and some lice and gallantly "rescued" it from the evil farmer. OK, I admit I
am skeptical based on my own experience with goats. Runny noses and lice are
not uncommon; they are yucky and sub-optimal, but not earth shattering. In
fact, I bet I could find some goats that fit that description in my field right
now. Hell, I could probably find CHILDREN with runny noses and lice, too. But I digress…
Back to our story. Our Heroic
Activist steals the baby goat, ripping it away from its mother. And what do you
think happened? The baby goat got SICKER… because it wasn’t eating…because it didn’t
know how to nurse off of a bottle…because it had a mama. (I refer you to my post
about bottle feeding baby goats. It’s not as easy as you – or The Activist—might
think).
Fortunately, The Activist took the
kid to a vet who dosed it up with some antibiotics and convinced it to
eat from a bottle. The baby survived and was re-homed with some seemingly-sensible
people who now love the little animal.
But, the story easily could’ve had
a different, tragic ending because of the rash act of The Activist.
Time for a breather. I need to get my
blood pressure back down.
Here’s a cute baby goat video of the antics of our
goat “Sofie” and her farmyard friends.
The Antics of Sofie |
Yes, of course, there are some bad farmers out
there. And, yes, some animals are raised in deplorable conditions (people, too,
for that matter).
As a society we must be careful
not to view everything exclusively through our personal biases. Just because there are some
bad people, doesn’t mean all people are bad.
The Law of the Hammer and the Nail |
And for God’s sake, we need to educate ourselves before we react.
Yup |
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