Gladheart Farm

At GladHeart Farm, it is standard practice to take kids (baby goats) from their mothers at birth, despite the deep maternal and familial bonds goats exhibit and would otherwise maintain for life. According to scientists, mother goats cry and bleat for their babies, and still recognize the individual calls of their kids for at least a year or more after they have been separated.

All of the forcibly orphaned kids are housed separately from their mothers, with little space to roam in a stuffy pen inside the dairy barn. Instead of nursing their mother’s breastmilk as nature intended, kids are bottle-fed instead.

Kids bottle-feeding at Gladheart Farm

Every kid is dehorned at a young age using a dehorner, which is a searing hot tube pressed into the sensitive horn area that destroys horn-producing cells. One of the farmers even admitted that it is “painful for the babies.” (Search youtube for dehorning videos).

A kid that has been dehorned at Gladheart Farm

After being traumatically separated from their mothers and dehorned, the goats that Gladheart keeps will be impregnated when they are anywhere from 14-16 months old, though in the past the farm has impregnated goats as young as 5-6 months old. If newborn kids are males, they will be sold off when they are two to three weeks old (and still being bottle fed). “Usually people want the babies for breeders… possibly for meat,” said a farmer from Gladheart.

Female goats living separate from their babies at Gladheart Farm

When adult goats drop in productivity or are no longer wanted at Gladheart Farm, they will be sold to people who may continue using them for their breastmilk or slaughter them for their flesh.

Gladheart Farm currently sells goat’s milk at:

• GladHeart Farm’s Sunday Market
• Hope & Co in Asheville, North Carolina
• French Broad Coop
• Enka-Chandler Tailgate Market