03/24/2026
I donāt usually weigh in on things like this, but this one hits too close to home not to say something.
Whatās been circulating in the news about a livestreamed at-home C-section performed with dull instruments on a goat without any form of pain control is not āfarm life,ā itās not ādoing what you have to do,ā and it is absolutely not acceptable animal care.
There is NEVER a situation where it is okay to cut into a conscious doe without proper anesthesia and veterinary care. Our goats rely on us to take care of them, and that includes making humane, ethical decisions, especially in emergencies.
If a situation is truly that dire and a veterinary-assisted C-section is not possible, the only humane option is a terminal C-section, meaning the doe is humanely euthanized FIRST, and then the kids are removed. Anything else is unnecessary suffering.
I say this not just as a principle, but from experience. I have been in this exact kind of situation before.
In 2021, SG Shadow-Hills Moon Struck 1*M EVEE 89(FF) suffered a catastrophic uterine tear during delivery. To this day, I still don't understand what happened. She's the only one I've ever personally heard of to have one in an UNASSISTED delivery. She'd been laboring off and on all day, but never really got down to any hard pushing. I'd begun to get that gut feeling that something wasn't quite right. She just wasn't making normal progression, but didn't seem to be in distress. It was more like they behave when a kid isn't presenting correctly, where they don't want to push because they know it isn't right. With that in mimd, I did go in, but only far enough to check the position of the kid, barely a hand's depth in. It wasn't a malpresenting kid. It wasn't a tangled mess that needed correcting. It wasn't a monster-sized single buck. I found a completely normally presenting kid sitting right in the birth canal. Shrugging off the bad feeling, I let her continue working at it, and she did start really bearing down, and delivered that first kid unassisted. However, with one final push, everything went horribly wrong. The kid came out, followed by the doe's own intestines. I was trying to keep them in, doing everything I could to keep them inside while every contraction she had tried to force everything back out. While my hand was in there trying to hold that in, I was also able to feel that there was another kid in there, and a brief attempt to pull it out also made it clear that Moon Struck's own organs were blocking the exit, and I couldn't keep them in and pull the kid out at the same time.
Moon Struck was going into shock quickly. It was clear this was not survivable, and there was no realistic way she would have made the hour-and-a-half trip to the nearest vet, even if they had been available in the middle of the night. I could only imagine the amount of blood loss that must be occurring with such a massive uterine rupture.
But even in that moment, with the pressure and the panic, it never once crossed my mind to cut into her while she was still alive and make her suffer more. I made the call to end her suffering and put her down. Only then did I perform the C-section and pull a beautiful doe kid from her.
That little doe kid went on to have a daughter, and now two granddaughters who are still part of this herd today. Moon Struckās legacy lives on, but it did not come at the cost of prolonging her suffering.
Whatās equally upsetting is seeing people defend or justify what was done in this case. This is not about experience level, āold schoolā methods, or doing your best with what you have. This is about basic animal welfare and where we draw the line.
As livestock owners, we all have a responsibility to know our limits and to be prepared, whether that means having a relationship with a vet, making the hard call when needed, or choosing the humane option when things go wrong.
Our animals depend on us to do right by them. Thereās no gray area here.
Pictured: Moon Struck, RIP š
https://local21news.com/news/local/steinmetz-family-farm-baby-goat-snuggling-animal-cruelty-charges-c-section-pregnant-berks-county-rescue-league-youtube-pennsylvania-farm-show-crime-pa
