Hello Reader,

For about a week now, there's been a really important conversation happening inside our Goats 365 community.

It started when one of our members — who has a goat-related landscaping business and takes her goats out to properties where they could come into contact with people — brought up a question that doesn't have a tidy answer.

In late July, a skunk got into the pen of a traveling petting zoo's goats in North Carolina. Three of those goats have since tested positive for rabies, with a fourth presumed infected. All four were euthanized.

Nobody realized what had happened until it was too late. That petting zoo had already traveled to public events across seven North Carolina counties, and health officials say dozens of people — many of them kids — may have had direct contact with the infected goats. Some families are now going through rabies post-exposure treatment just to be safe.

Here's the part every goat owner needs to hear: there is no rabies vaccine labeled for goats.

Not one. There's no USDA-approved rabies vaccine developed and tested specifically for goats. Some people give their goats an off-label vaccine made for another species — often the one labeled for cattle or sheep, and sometimes even a dog vaccine.

I want to be really clear about what "off-label" means here, because it's not the same as "vaccinated." There is zero research on how well those vaccines actually work in goats — we don't know the right dose, and we don't know how long any protection lasts. And because it's off-label, it provides no legal protection under public health rabies regulations, even if it happens to help that individual goat.

So if a goat that's been given an off-label rabies vaccine bites someone, or is exposed to a rabid animal, that vaccine won't change what public health officials are required to do.

This is really more of a legal question than a health question.

If your goats are ever in a position to be in contact with people — a petting zoo, goat yoga, farm tours, fairs, or even a goatscaping business where your goats are out on someone else's property — you're taking on liability most of us never think about until something goes wrong. And there's no easy fix. It's not as simple as "just vaccinate them," because that vaccine doesn't exist. It comes down to things like insurance, how your business is structured, and understanding what you're actually responsible for.

One more thing this case is a good reminder of: pay attention to what wild animals have access to your goats, especially skunks, raccoons, foxes, and bats — the most common rabies carriers. Once it became clear a skunk had gotten into that pen, the goats should have been quarantined right away and watched closely for symptoms before ever going to another public event. That's the step that got missed.

If you ever know — or even suspect — that a wild animal got into your goat pen, don't wait to see if your goats get sick before you act.

I've covered this before, and if any of this applies to your situation, it's worth the listen:

• Rabies in Goats — Dr. Kevin Pelzer from Virginia Tech's vet school explains how goats get rabies, what symptoms look like, and why there's no FDA-labeled rabies vaccine for goats.

• Goat Law — I asked agricultural attorney Eva Moss, of Farm Commons, directly: could someone be held legally responsible in a situation like this, when no approved vaccine exists and there's no research on the off-label alternatives?

There's no simple answer here, but it's a lot better to think it through now than after something happens.

If you want to keep talking it through, that conversation is still going on in Goats 365.

Deborah