By Ana Zeikidze, Guest Writer
Students at Newman University got a special kind of stress relief last week when four baby goats arrived on the Dresselhaus Patio.
The March 27 event, called Goats with Goad, gave students the chance to pet, feed, and cuddle baby goats, right in the middle of their busy school day.
The goats belong to Dr. Daryl Goad, an assistant biology professor at Newman, and his wife, Kate.
“Everybody knows I love my goats,” Goad said with a smile. “We tried to have kids and we couldn’t, so we thought, ‘These are our kids.’”
The idea to bring goats to campus came when the mental health coordinator at
Newman reached out to Goad, asking if he’d be interested in bringing the goats for students to enjoy.
“I was like, ‘That would be awesome,” he said. “We love sharing our goats. They are just lots of fun.”
Goad said he believes that interacting with animals, especially baby goats, helps students relax and feel better.
“They’re very cute. They’re curious. They’re a joy to be around,” he said
while pointing at Rocky, one of the goats, happily eating from a student’s hand. “This is our first time bringing them to campus, but I’m already making memories.”
Kate, who helps care for the goats, said the couple has kept goats for about three years.
“This is our second year of having baby goats,” she said. “Last year we had seven total, and this year we have four.”
The Goads love their baby goats, but they don’t always keep them.
“We sell the boys,” Kate Goad said. “We don’t really need more than one male goat. But we keep the girls.”
The Goads often take the goats to an auction in Yoder, and because their goats are well-socialized, they said, they usually sell quickly.
“The boys go for $35 to $75, and the girls can go for $75 to $125,” Kate Goad said. “Once, we even paid $150 for a goat with a bum leg — we were new to it all — but it was worth it.”
The goats don’t just bring joy. They’re also useful, Kate Goad said.
“We milk the moms once the babies are done nursing,” she said. “I make really good goat cheese. It’s super easy.”
Students laughed, took photos, and crowded around to take turns feeding the goats at the event.
Some goats were a little nervous at first and refused to eat from bottles that students were holding, but most warmed up quickly and seemed just as happy as the students were.
Goats just have a way of making people forget their worries, Kate Goad said.
“If you’re having a cruddy day at work, you just go out, sit with the goats, pet them, feed them, and watch them play,” she said.
PHOTO: Dannicka McGrath, Photo Editor
