Angora (Mohair) Goat Basics: Legal requirements

Agriculture, husbandry, goats, Angora, Mohair, welfare, the law, animal welfare act
By Dr Clive Dalton

Your legal responsibilities

• If you keep sheep you are bound by the Animal Welfare Act 1999. The details of good practice under this law are set out in a number of animal welfare codes that you should be aware of. See further reading.

The Five Freedoms
This is the main principle behind the Animal Welfare Act as the person responsible for the care of an animal is legally bound to provide it with “The Five Freedoms”. These are:

• Freedom from hunger and thirst.
• Freedom from discomfort.
• Freedom from pain, injury and disease.
• Freedom from fear and distress.
• Freedom to express “normal” behaviour.
  

The first four freedoms are all very straightforward and it’s only the fifth one where people start to worry about the definitions of what is “normal” behaviour, especially when you consider what happened when man domesticated sheep and the way we farm them today.

• To really understand the 5th freedom, you have to think of mankind and the sheep writing a contract – what the late Dr Ron Kilgour called 'the Domestic Contract'.
  
• The goat cannot negotiate its side of the contract so man has to do it for the goat as well as his own. So when you look at some of today’s goat husbandry practices, you may rightly question if the goat got a fair deal.
• We must constantly be checking and updating this agreement with the goat to make sure that both man and the goat end up with a reasonable compromise. It can only ever be a compromise. It’s up to the human to make sure it’s a fair one.
• So on the farm – remember your goats are legally entitled to the 5 Freedoms and failing to provide these can result in large fines and imprisonment.
  
• We really have to take this seriously because as an exporting country, our competitors are watching us all the time, hoping an issue will arise that they can exploit and restrict or stop our trade.
  
• To our “clean and green” image we must now add the word “humane” and show the world that this is our business and not just public relations spin.
  

Angora (Mohair) Goat Basics: Goat welfare issues

Agriculture, animal husbandry, goats, Angora, Mohair, welfare, issues

By Dr Clive Dalton

Goat welfare issues

There are plenty of these. Here are some common ones:

• Footrot. This a major problem with goats and is difficult to cure once established. The answer for chronic cases is to cull them.
• Internal parasites (worms). Many goats now have worms that are resistant to all drenches.
• Shelter and shade. Goats need more shelter in winter than sheep and shade in summer.
• The roadside goat. These are very obvious to the public who are concerned about their welfare.
• Goats released into the environment. When returns from goat meat or fibre falls, many are released and get into native bush and damage native flora.
  

Transport
Goats used to human contact will be little problem during transport, but even so, it’s important to study the Code of Recommendations and Minimal Standards (Number 15, 1994) on the MAF Welfare of Animals Transported Within New Zealand.

Goats need special care during transport because they can be very easily stressed with serious health consequences and even deaths. The code lists a number of stressors, which are worth noting:

• Yarding & handling.
• Deprivation of or changes in the quantity or the quality of food and water.
• Changes in climatic conditions.
• Grouping animals that are strange to each other both within and between species.
• Separation from others of the animal’s own kind.
• Unfamiliar surroundings, noises and sensations.
• Overcrowding.
• Isolation.
• Insufficient pre-travel rest periods.
• Insufficient care during road transport.
• Physiological responses associated with pregnancy.
• Disease.
  

• It’s good stockmanship and common sense not to transport does in late pregnancy or at least give them special care. Does with kids at foot and young animals also need special care.

• The trucks, trailers and crates used must be well constructed, well ventilated and free from draughts, and should be driven to avoid stock getting thrown around. If you only have a few animals in a large pen, then reduce the space with gates or hay bales.

• Make sure they can get a good grip on the floor surface with slats, hay, straw or sawdust. Broken legs are the most common hazards. Goats may want to lie down on long journeys too so this is why a good layer of bedding is important. Bucks especially with horns should be penned separately.

• It’s very important that animals not fit to travel are kept at home. “Fit to travel” means that an animal can bear weight on all four legs and does not have any clinical disease. If in doubt, then a veterinary certificate should be provided to the person transporting the stock as they could be in breach of the Animal Welfare Act 1999.

The recommended space needed per goat during transport is as follows:


Roadside goats
This is always a major animal welfare issue for SPCA and MAF in New Zealand. Problems include:

• No proper feed - goats are expected to live on dead gorse.
• No shelter - goats have little fat cover. If there is a shelter provided, it's often dilapidated and too small for goat to stand upright in.
• No water - goats need water but owners often tell you that they don't! You often see a small container that the goat regularly knocks over.
• Tethers are too long so goats can lie on the road (which is warm and dry) and they get run over.
• Tethers get bound up around trees or in long grass so the goat is starved and may even end up being strangled.
• There is no swivel in the tether chain so the goat is strangled.
• The goat has no defence against stray dogs when tethered.
• The animals are not checked and moved enough.
• Goat shelters that are inadequate - not weatherproof, too small for goat to enter, turn around and stand up.
• Chronic footrot which often ends up with blowfly attacks.