[sweetgoats]

This last Friday (15), I was having a 4H meeting but instead of a MEETING we though it would be need to go to this local ladies house and she was going to teach us how to make goat soap. I called and she said she was to busy. Well almost all the kids volunteered to go to her place and help her. You know do some community service. They said they would help her clean stall and feed and what ever else.
Well, I had to work until 11:00, I got pizza ands took it to them for lunch. They started tell me the horror stories. They found dead goats, donkeys feet that have maybe never been trimmed, they were about 6" long and they were curling up, goats with extremely swollen scrotum's, no hair, barely able to walk. A steer in a pen that was about 6' x 8'. No more then that. He could barely turn around.
On top of all that she was making these kids that were VOLUNTEERING clean the pens that were at least 8" deep and once they were cleaned, she made the sweep them out. SWEEP. Maybe I am a bad goat person but I would never sweep the stall. I mean the dirt stalls. The kids would tell her they were done with the stall and she would say without looking, NO YOU ARE NOT, it would take longer if it was clean.
I took pictures of it all. I was sick. She had 12 bucks in a run that was about 3' wide and 12' long. That is all the room other then the stall. OH she told the kids to move the bucks and clean the other stall. (I put a stop to that, no way were kids going to be moving bucks around, my daughter was the oldest kid, and she was only 17).
I did have it out with her. I told her that is she can not keep up with the animals then maybe she should not have so many, well that did not go over very well. She explained that she loved all her goats, and she only has a hard time during kidding season. She had 26 goats kid and she had 24 more.
I tell you I thought it would be a great experience to see how things should be done and it ended up being how things should NOT be done.
We did get to see how the soap was made and she gave all the kids a bar of soap, and lotion. She even called me at home and told me she was very thankful for the kids and they did a wonderful job. (that was because she heard how I was mad at the fact that is someone is volunteering you should not abuse them). I do understand that they did agree to help her, but you could tell the stalls have not been cleaned in a VERY LONG TIME.
I will have to post pictures if I can find my camera.
I did tell all the kids to scrub their boots in bleach water when they get home and NOT to go in their pens in those shoes until they do it.

 

[goatnutty]

Oh boy!Dead goats,donkeys,ex. I agree that she should maybe sell some animals or at least not breed them all.

 

[Muddy Creek Farm]

Wow! That sounds horrible, some people just can not keep up with the number of animals they have. :shrug:

 

[enjoytheride]

You never know what is going on behind closed doors- I'm wondering why she allowed anyone onto her place with situations that probably are chargable under animal cruelty regs. That donkey is clearly chargable in any place I ever heard of- sounds like it might have foundered-dead goats are a public health issue.
The kids can at least know that they gave some of the animals some relief however temporary.
She must not understand what is good husbandry or she is in some kind of crisis. Does she live alone?

The only part of your story that I could laugh about is that- yes I do sweep up the dirt in goats pen every day. Does that make me wierd?

 

[Muddy Creek Farm]

LOL So do I ETR. I love to see it all clean haahaa :ROFL:

 

[alyssa_romine]

That is horrible! I could not imagine the horror those kids went through....at least they learned what NOT to do!

 

[StaceyRosado]

oh my! how terrible. Something needs to be done for the situation though. She can't keep up with all the animals thats apparent, some intervention is really needed.

The lady who owns the bucks I have used is getting up in years and every time i go to her place I always find it cleaned out and nice, muddy sometimes, but that is to be expected with all the wet we have had. But still everyone is in good condition and she has LOTS of goats.

 

[cjpup]

Wow!! This is horrible!!!!! I can NOT believe people would treat poor innocent animalls like that.......

Just so you know, you Can make an ANNONYMOUS complaint to the authorities about this and they will show up at her house (unanounced) to look at the animals. Just a thought.......didnt know if thats something you thought about doing....

I hope things get better for her animals!
CJ

 

[MissMM]

I'm glad I wasn't in your position. I probably would have called the authorities right then and there. Part of "loving your critters" is taking good care of them, and finding someone who can if you're no longer able to.

If nothing else, it was a good lesson for those kids on how quicly things can get out of hand if they don't care for their animals responsibly.

Re: sweeping the barn floor - I'd love to, but my barn floor is dirt, so all I can do is give it a good raking.

 

[susanne]

how sad for the animals. i think it was a valuable lesson for the children to see where it goes if they have too many animals.
i probably would have reported this to the authorities to. can you imagine the health hazard if dead animals are laying around?

 

[goathappy]

Oh my!! That is to sad, unfortunately I've seen situations like that I dont' understand people sometimes.