VOICE YOUR STRONG OPPOSITION TO INTENSIVE DAIRY GOAT FARM FOR GEELONG VICTORIA

The welfare of 14,000 goats is being questioned, and disbelief being voiced by many after learning that the intensive goat dairy farm at Geelong, Victoria would go ahead! The goats would be split between two sheds with no proposed access to outdoor areas.

Headlines in the Geelong Advertiser July 26, 2016 read “City Hall planning meeting welcomes goat as huge crowd voice concern over mega farm”
Did their voices hold any sway? The answer would seem to be a resounding NO! With the lead paragraph reading, “A CONTROVERSIAL dairy goat farm near Moorabool has been given the green light by City of Greater Geelong, despite the protests of more than 100 people.”
Many speakers passionately argued against reported findings, gaining rousing cheers. One of the points raised was that the EPA had based its approval on a report Nuchev Pty Ltd had done itself, which was “blatantly misleading”.

http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/news/city-hall-planning-meeting-welcomes-goat-as-huge-crowd-voice-concern-over-mega-farm/news-story/b91dc3dd233931ac1dfdb3cecf4a4a13

Concerns raised include; transmission of Q fever from the goats, the handling of dust and waste water, noise, the environmental impact of the farm, animal rights and animal welfare. A Lara resident said that using council’s own reports and Australian farming practices, the goat farm would use a minimum of an Olympic-sized swimming pool of water every week while the community faced water restrictions. A climate change, environmental and health expert told the panel the farm provided “little environmental protection and shows no genuine concern for the local community”. Another question raised was about the impact on neighbouring properties.

http://www.geelongadvertiser.com.au/news/geelong/company-unveils-multimilliondollar-plan-to-farm-14000-goats-near-lara/news-story/bfd6b3f4a8ff1a0836702b991802cf13

There are many animal welfare issues associated with intensive farming, Nuchev reportedly believing that there are “no benefits for goats if grazing and/or animal exercise is undertaken”. These 14,000 goats to do not deserve to be deprived of a natural life.
 “The intensive (factory) farming of animals is becoming increasingly unacceptable throughout the community at large. While intensification of animal-based agriculture such as this sees more produce from less land, it comes at enormous cost to animal welfare.
 Goats are highly social animals and are extremely curious about their world exhibiting a range of exploratory behaviours. Confining goats in sheds for their lifetime without access to the outdoors and grazing denies them the opportunity to express natural behaviours. The impacts of such confinement would compound the welfare issues associated with the dairy industry, where female dairy goats are kept in an almost constant state of pregnancy, with their babies quickly removed after birth to allow their milk to be made into powder for export.
 It has been stated that the litter on the floor of the sheds may be replaced only two to four times a year, suggesting that the animals will live in almost permanently soiled conditions, since they will be producing an estimated 7000 tonnes of waste annually within a confined environment.”

https://www.edgarsmission.org.au/50886/youve-got-to-be-kidding/

“At a Nuchev leased farm at Clunes north of Ballarat, the latest genetic and animal breeding technologies have been used to quickly build a massive herd. Last year, 5000 feral goats were trucked from outback stations in far western NSW to be used as surrogate mothers, with donor embryos from 900 pedigree does mated with stud Saanen bucks implanted into them.”
The below hyperlink leads to a very interesting article; “Ben Dingle creating the biggest dairy goat nutritional business in the world”

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/ben-dingle-creating-the-biggest-dairy-goat-nutritional-business-in-the-world/news-story/7b8849fdde07846066341934f15fd036

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** Photo credit: PIXABAY

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