Goat Racing
Goat racing is a ‘sport’ that involves capturing wild goats, harnessing them to a cart, and forcing them to race [1]. Animal Liberation investigators who witnessed goat racing described it as one of the cruellest animal abusing ‘sports’ in Australia.
The Issues
Mental and Physical Issues
The goats used in racing are typically wild or semi-wild, and as a result they are not accustomed to humans or physical constraints, causing them to suffer from stress. Goats are trapped, caught and transported to the race track. They are then restrained by ropes tied around their horns and have a harness and cart strapped to them. Being prey animals, they feel threatened throughout the entire situation.
As these animals are wild, they have not been trained to pull a cart, which is dangerous to their physical well being. While Animal Liberation is against using goats for work, research has found that a trained doe (female goat) should only eventually pull a maximum of their own weight, and a male should only pull a maximum of one and a half times their weight when it is evenly distributed [2]. The goats in Australian races, are not trained, and often have human adults sitting in the carts being pulled. As a result, the goat’s body endures a severe amount of physical strain, as there is a large weight disparity.
After the events, the goats are placed back on the trucks and released to semi-wild or wild properties.
Involvement of Children
Children from four years of age are encouraged to be ‘jockeys’, placing them at risk of injuries. Animal Liberation investigators witnessed children laying on the ground in the foetal position while attempting to tend to their injuries after they had fallen from the carts, while scared goats ran wildly around them. All the while, the crowd cheers. This is also evident in a popular goat racing event in Lightning Ridge (video above).
Involving children in such an abusive, cruel ‘sport’, fosters an acceptance of humans being insensitive to animals. This can reduce the empathy of children to the animals’ pain and suffering. Research in psychology and criminology has shown that people who commit acts of cruelty towards animals, often go on to commit violent acts towards humans [3].
Animal Liberation Investigation
Evident in an Animal Liberation investigation, once the race begins, some goats collapse to the ground with fright. Other goats attempt to escape, crashing headfirst into fences, leaving some bleeding and others knocked unconscious. From the investigations, the goats appear to be re-used in several heats. As the events continue, the animals only become more difficult to handle and struggle to avoid further involvement. Many showed signs of exhaustion by collapsing [4].
Vets claimed that our footage showed evidence of cruelty to animals, as well as more serious, aggravated cruelty to animals.
After the footage was released by Today Tonight, Animal Liberation petitioned supporters to cease their funding. Qantas and Origin were two big names to withdraw their support, based on animal welfare issues.
2021 Update
Animal Liberation QLD investigators attended the Roma goat race this year. The announcer stated that due to Animal Liberation’s presence and media coverage in the past, the event had changed dramatically. The Roma goat race reduced the number of racing goats to just 6, ran fewer races, and goats were enticed to run to the finish line with food.
While this is a win, it is still unnatural for a goat to be captured, strapped to a cart with a harness, and to pull more than their body weight.
What can you do?
As consumers, we hold the power to end the suffering of goats in this industry. Without our money, these events would simply cease to exist, freeing the animals from a lifetime of unnatural stress and misery.