Profile:Buttercups Goat Sanctuary

Helen Babbs visits the UK’s only goat rescue centre

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Down a tree-lined lane in Kent is an unusual five-acre smallholding that’s home to over a hundred goats. The paddocks are filled with a mixed herd of every breed of goat and every possible cross-breed, playing contentedly under the huge trees of what was once part of the deer park of a nearby stately home. What each goat shares is a background of suffering or homelessness, which has brought them to Buttercups Goat Sanctuary.

FROM ONE GOAT TO MANY

“We’re the only specifically goat sanctuary in the UK,” explains Matt, the Communications administrator at Buttercups. “We care for goats who’ve been abused or neglected, or in some cases, simply could no longer be kept by their former owners.” The sanctuary provides both rescue and rehabilitation, and then a permanent rest-of-life home.

Buttercup's sanctuary began in 1989, when rare-breed sheep keepers Bob and Valerie Hitch were asked by a friend at the local RSPCA if they could take in a goat who had just been rescued. “Another couple of rescue goats soon followed, and then another, and then it kind of snowballed,” describes Matt. “People across the southeast began to contact us directly, if they saw a goat in trouble.” By 2003, Buttercups shifted to a registered charity status, to ensure the work could continue long-term. “Sadly, there are always goats in need of rescuing,” Matt notes.

OUT IN THE FIELD