It is a very sad vision that Benoît and Laurie Huser had Friday evening which raise around forty goats on their organic farm in Vétroz (VS). They have indeed discovered three of their dead protégés in their meadow which adjoins a municipal path. Beautiful goats, young and in great shape, which had given birth to five Cabris, not weaned and now orphans. And they lost their lives due to human stupidity.
What happened? “Someone gave bread to our goats,” said Laurie Huser. “What is fatal for them, because bread causes acidosis in ruminants,” she adds. (Read the box). She is angry. First against the unknown who saw fit to feed his goats. “Stop feeding animals, whether in a breeder or wild,” she says. “I do not give candies to a child who is not mine, why do we allow ourselves to give food to an animal that does not belong to us?” And to emphasize that the couple regularly notes the presence of dry bread on their meadows.
In addition, the breeder is sad. On the one hand on the emotional level. “We lose three good goats that we have raised and that we likely,” she sighs. On the other hand, financially. “We will have to pay 150 francs to eliminate dead animals. In addition, we have five Cabris that we will have to bottle. This is more work and above all, a whole season of dairy production is lost for us since these goats will not give milk this summer, ”explains Laurie Huser who recalls that her farm produces cheese. “We work 7/7 and a person, in the space of a few minutes, comes to sabotage all this work. I am disgusted. “
Why bread can be fatal for an animal
Walkers often want to feed animals. But it’s very bad for them. Indeed, when a ruminant, (goat or cow) ruminates his usual food, his saliva makes the pH of his alkaline paunch. But by ingesting a large quantity of carbohydrates, like bread, this balance is modified and the paunch is activated. Which can be fatal for the animal which then agonized in a few hours. For horses or donkeys, it’s not better. The bread can cause fuel, the very painful acute inflammation of the soft tissue of the feet. This is the second cause of mortality in equines, behind colic.
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