Is Goat Yoga Animal Cruelty?

I have a friend (and you know who you are) who is deathly afraid of goats. She'll laugh off her fear like it's no big deal, but she's actually crippled when she sees goats and it all has to do with something traumatic that happened to her when she was a little girl.

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We've all heard the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf. Well, my friend was an overly dramatic child and things got to the point where her parents stopped running every time she yelled for them.

Then it happened, one day, her family was visiting a neighbor who had goats. My friend's mom dressed her up in a dress and put her pigtails in bows. You can see where this is going, can't you?

While the adults were in the house, the kids were playing in the yard and the goats were safely fenced in. My friend decided to get a better look at the goat and the goat decided to eat her ribbon for lunch.

Goat Yoga

She was ignored as she screamed for help because she was also so dramatic. The goat chomped off her pigtail...hair, ribbon, and all. It's safe to say my friend will not ever, ever, EVER participate in goat yoga.

Now if you're not terrified of goats, if you think they're pretty adorable, and you want to get really up close and personal with them, you'll be happy to know that goat yoga is picking up steam as a really popular thing to do.

People who organize goat yoga say that it's completely harmless for the animals, but others, including PETA, have started to question whether or not it really is.

According to Yoga Journal, goat yoga doesn't "center the philosophical principles of yoga." But there's more to it than just that.

PETA points out that young goats are used for goat yoga, and they grow fast so businesses conducting goat yoga need to replace the baby goats often.

What happens to the baby goats when they're too big for goat yoga?

The answer might not be what you want to hear. Whether or not you participate in goat yoga is totally up to you, but you might want to ask some questions before you participate.