Male goats stink. In order to get the girl goats to be their baes, the male goats pee on themselves to get a manly musk . When they are ready to breed, in heat, male goats are also incredibly aggressive and can be dangerous to a person who does not know how to properly handle them.

When goats attack!                                             Source: hilariousgifs.com

This is one of the reasons I’ve heard people say that they do not like goats. Other complaints include that they are prone to escaping, being curious and active animals that need simulation, and that they are herd animals, so you can never have just one.

Some people don’t like the taste of goats’ milk or cheese, or will flat-out refuse to try it because it is different from the conventional cow milk.

Anti-goat sentiment is not new. It can even be seen in the Bible. In Matthew 25: 31-46, Jesus used a parable of sheep and goats for his followers. He said that, at the end of time, “He will separate the people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. He will put the sheep on his right and the goats on his left.” (versus 32-33). On one hand, this is a necessary task for shepherds due to the differing dietary need and temperaments of goats and sheep. In this parable, though, the sheep symbolize those who go to heaven and the goats are the ones that go to hell. This perception of goats as “badies” was deeply engrained in Jewish and early Middle Eastern culture and relatable to his listeners.

In Medieval Europe, goats made no friends in the torture circuit. They were the unknowing perpetrators of the infamous “tickle torture”, a gruesome practice with a funny name. Victims were tied to a tree, with feet soaked in salt water. Thirsty, water deprived goats were led to the feet and would lick, them, producing a ticklish sensation. Later, this tickling turns into extreme torture when the goat’s rough tongue has licked enough that it is now licking away the skin on the feet.

Are around this same time, the figure of the goat became a popular representation of the devil. Pictures of satanic worship and the infamous “black mass”, the Catholic mass’s demonic counterpart, feature towering goat commanding devil worshippers. Even today, this image persists.

“Witches’ Sabbath” by Francisco Goya, 1798        Source: Wikipedia

One little known pop culture reference to this depiction of Satan as a goat is what is called “throwing the goat” at rock concerts, a gesture often done but little fully understood. Concertgoers point their index and pinky fingers skywards, and tuck in their other fingers and thumb. This gesture can be seen on the back of the band Coven’s Witchcraft Destroys the Mind & Reaps Souls album and is present in some of the key moments of metal music history.

Goats are not only portrayed in religion negatively, just as goats are not really bad animals in the world. In Ancient Rome, the Pan was a half-man half-goat god loved by the people. And the constellation Capricornus was based off the image of a goat, leading to the zodiac sign Capricorn. After isolating the majority of what has been said against goats, we will be able to see the overwhelming amount of support for what makes them incredible.

Capricornus constellation                                                            Source: crystalinks.com

Sources:

https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew+25:31-46

http://www.invisibleoranges.com/2011/11/a-condensed-history-of-goat-worship/

http://www.space.com/21414-capricornus-constellation.html

http://www.greekmythology.com/Other_Gods/Pan/pan.html

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1120948/