TURNER FALLS, Mass. (WHDH) — Students in Western Massachusetts helped a goat give birth to three kids earlier this month.
A Nigerian dwarf goat named Addie showed signs of labor on March 1 while her owner, Franklin County Technical School veterinary and animal science teacher Kimberly Barry, was preparing to leave her farm in the morning, according to Superintendent Richard Martin and Director of Career and Technical Education Matthew West.
Barry decided to bring the goat with her to school in Turner Falls so she could monitor the animal.
While teaching her 10th-grade class, it became clear that Addie was going to deliver so the students gathered around to watch and assist in the birthing process.
Some of the students helped catch the baby goats, called kids, while they were being born.
Addie gave birth to three kids in total.
“This was a great lesson in normal caprine birth and the steps that need to be taken immediately after kids are born,” Barry said. “One of the things we always stress at Franklin County Tech is giving our students real-world experiences in their fields of interest, and this experience was as ‘real-world’ as it gets. It was great for the students to see this birth up close and be able to ask questions about what they saw.”
Students in Barry and Regina Parsons’ classes have been learning firsthand about postpartum care for both newborn goats and their mother in the past week, and have been discussing the normal behavior of kids and how to raise them in a safe and healthy environment, Martin and West said in a press release.
Since giving birth, Addie has rejected one of the kids, which is a common occurrence in livestock. This allowed the students to learn how to properly bottle feed newborn goats.
“Assisting in the birth of these goats and the subsequent care for them is something that these students won’t soon forget, and it was a special way for them to learn more about animal science,” West said. “Our veterinary program has a long history of hands-on education and this is just the latest example of that.”
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