By Katelyn Unger

First and foremost, I must pay Wikipedia full credit for the information in this article. I felt that in order to understand the meanings behind this week’s newspaper, there must be one place in it that gives a good description of a goat. So, here is the Wikipedia definition of ‘goat’ (abbreviated of course):
The Name
The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep, both being in the goat antelope subfamily Caprinae. Domestic goats are one of the oldest domesticated species. For thousands of years, goats have been used for their milk, meat, hair, and skins over much of the world.
Female goats are referred to as does or nannies (or, less frequently, as mishas), intact males as bucks or billies; their offspring are kids. Castrated males are wethers. Goat meat from younger animals is called kid, and from older animals is sometimes called chevon, or in some areas mutton.
History
Goats seem to have been first domesticated roughly 10,000 years ago in the Zagros Mountains of Iran. Ancient cultures and tribes began to keep them for easy access to milk, hair, meat, and skins. Domestic goats were generally kept in herds that wandered on hills or other grazing areas, often tended by goatherds who were frequently children or adolescents, similar to the more widely known shepherd. These methods of herding are still used today.
Historically, goat hide has been used for water and wine bottles in both traveling and transporting wine for sale. It has also been used to produce parchment, which was the most common material used for writing in Europe until the invention of the printing press.
Anatomy
Goats are ruminants. They have a four-chambered stomach consisting of the rumen, the reticulum, the omasum, and the abomasum.
Goats have horizontal slit-shaped pupils, an adaptation which increases peripheral depth perception. Because goats’ irises are usually pale, the pupils are much more visible than in animals with horizontal pupils but very dark irises, such as sheep, cattle and most horses.
Goat uses
A goat is useful to humans both alive and dead, first as a renewable provider of milk and fibre, and then as meat and hide. Some charities provide goats to impoverished people in poor countries, because goats are easier and cheaper to manage than cattle, and have multiple uses. In addition, goats are used for driving and packing purposes.
For instance, the intestine is used to make “catgut”, which is still in use as a material for internal human sutures. The horn of the goat, which signifies wellbeing (Cornucopia) is also used to make spoons etc.
Meat
The taste of goat meat is similar to that of lamb meat; in fact, in some parts of Asia, particularly India, the word “mutton” is used to describe both goat and lamb meat. It can be prepared in a variety of ways including stewed, curried, baked, grilled, barbecued, minced, canned, or made into sausage. Goat jerky is also another popular variety.
Other parts of the goat including organs are also equally edible. Special delicacies include the brain (where legal) and liver. The head and legs of the goat may be smoked and used to prepare unique spicy dishes and soup.
Milk, butter and cheese
Many dairy goats, in their prime, average 6 to 8 pounds of milk daily (roughly 3 to 4 quarts) during a ten-month lactation, giving more soon after freshening and gradually dropping in production toward the end of their lactation. The milk generally averages 3.5 percent butterfat.
Goat butter is white (compared to yellow butter from cow’s milk) because the goats produce milk with the yellow beta-carotene converted to a colorless form of vitamin A.
Goat cheese is known as chèvre in France, after the French word for “goat”. Some varieties include Rocamadour and Montrachet. Feta is a well-known Greek variety that may be made with a blend of goat and sheep milk.