Usually not for me at all. I have cared for a lot of them over the years and they aren’t my jam.
But everyone has been swearing they do so well for weeds and insisting we need them… and we certainly have weeds we need to get in check.
Also, I wouldn’t mind raising some for meat and/or milk down the road.
Are there any Rent a Goat services in your area? That may be more feasible than ownership. They usually come with a shepherd with a trailer and a dog. They set up the temporary fencing. Used extensively here by farmers, and also by towns for fire abatement.
I don’t want to say the meat/processing part is easy, because it’s not… but there is something to be said for confidently saying your meat was ethically sourced. Breeding can be hit or miss and I finally understand that expression having lived through it now myself. For instance, last year our best doe delivered twins on the coldest day of the year, one presenting as a breach birth and the vets weren’t able to come until that night. That was a little scary! I’m happy to report all involved survived. Then, we bred the best buck to date - only to lose him at 6 months to a femur fracture that was irreparable. 
As far as goat keeping goes, I’d say if you can take care of a horse you can take care of a goat. A lot of the basics are the same across species. Some medications and wormers are too. And there is, IMO, very few things cuter than baby goats frolicking about while you do chores — the one exception being kittens.
I did not like other people’s goats. My pet peeve is rude, bargy goats. There’s tons of those out there and it soured me to goats for years before we had our own.
A friend kept a horse, two minis, and a mini goat, and said that despite her hopes, the goat was by far the pickiest eater of them all! So much for the mowing and weeding aspect.
Our goat was a bit of picky eater, too. Or, I should say, she had a voracious appetite for junk food. Like tortilla chips. In fact, that was the only way to lure her out of the backseat of the car or coax her out of the house. (She was very talented at navigating through any kind of not-completely-closed door).
When my parents would host a BBQ, the goat would climb up to the top of her house and spend the evening looking over the patio fence, begging for handouts.
I once worked at a barn that just had a new boarder move in and had their trailer parked there as well. The husband of the boarder thought he was entitled to use the empty pole barn spot that normally housed the barn owned trailer to park his truck. The trailer just happened to be in use and when they returned, found the truck parked in its spot and had to call the boarder to come get their truck. I think they got their nose bent out of joint and moved shortly afterwards.
Goats are terrorists.
Geez!
I thought goat people was funny. I’ve been called goat girl before. 
It’s always interesting to me what people freak out about humanely killing. Goat? Egads no! A stinky possum who might give my horse EPM … granny get your gun. Snakes? Kill those MF’ers. Pay no attention while I snarf down my Christmas ham and wolf down a Cornish hen. Hypocrisy abounds. Just dispatch your food quickly and humanely and shut the F up unless you subsist on nuts and berries.
Because goats are browsers, not grazers. They’ll eat grass but if browse is available they prefer it.
I thought of this thread this morning.
I was doing my morning chores and one of my barn cats was playing with its still alive self acquired Christmas breakfast.
I am betting that goat had a much more humane passing than this vole is having.
I had a little appy mare who LOVED thistle. It was quite comical to watch her ever so carefully remove the thistle flower and eat it while completely avoiding all the prickly parts.
Yes… but have you seen a thistle? The entire plant is prickly, down to the base. It isn’t a plant I’d be tempted to put in my mouth!
Your goats are so cute!
Amen.
And those who only eat “the ugly” animals because they can’t imagine looking into a cow’s eyes and killing it, but a fish…meh. It’s just a fish.
It’s not like anyone enjoys slaughtering animals. But it is sort of necessary if you want to eat them.
Same with my old guy. He’ll pull his lips as far backwards as he can, leaving his front teeth sticking out like tweezers. Then he carefully plucks off the purple thistle flowers.
My WB ate thistle. I’d watch him chomp down the bristly things & shudder 
Once, with a mouthful of this treat, he snorted on my brother…
Who was apparently wildly allergic to thistlespit.
We had to get topical Benadryl to treat the rash he immediately broke out in 
@Kinda_Kooky Welcome to COTH.
Let the snark roll off your back & know it’s far outweighed by horsy camraderie.
I can’t argue the science behind that but I can argue the logic. Why then do deer hunters put out food for deer, to attract the deer so that they can be shot by the hunters? I do not see how a hunter could be sure of shooting only deer who have not eaten or drunk for a set number of hours before getting shot. Likewise rabbits, possums, raccoons, quail, partridge, and other game animals.
I don’t think there is any reason to withhold water. And it might make it somewhat safer for an animal to have an empty stomach, but I can’t imagine it’s a huge difference in contamination risk. Gut contents will always have some potential for contamination if they are cut during processing.
As for hunting - well, it’s not the same as farming for meat. But also, hunters are not typically selling their game to the general public. So, the same safety rules would not apply.
ETA, as for why this particular animal had no food or water in front of it might have had more to do with a tradition/ritual than any health reason. Or maybe because it was in a temporary shelter and wasn’t going to be there more than an hour or so. Who knows.
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