Unless you’re a celebrity, few moments make you feel more popular than stepping into a barn stall filled with cuddly, hungry baby goats.
“The whole experience is heart-opening,” said Deborah Blum, founder and executive director of Goatlandia Farm Animal Sanctuary in Sebastopol.
Each year, Goatlandia rescues mostly male baby goats, almost all from the dairy industry. Because they cannot produce milk, newborn males are typically considered to have little economic value. At the sanctuary, the babies are bottle-fed and cared for until they can be adopted into permanent homes. Many eventually join the herd at City Grazing, a San Francisco nonprofit that uses goats for vegetation management and wildfire prevention.
Raising a baby goat is not inexpensive. From milk and hay to veterinary care, the nonprofit estimates that expenses for the first three months of a kid’s life average just over $5,000. Unable to nurse from their mothers, very young goats may require feeding as often as eight times a day.
That’s where the Bottle Babies Breakfast Club comes in. For a $250 donation, groups of up to four people can spend time with the charismatic youngsters while helping feed them their morning bottles. The feeding goes quickly, but once every belly is full, visitors can expect plenty of kid cuddles — along with a primer on goat care and rescue.
Goatlandia also aims to educate visitors about plant-based eating and foster greater compassion for animals. Blum adopted a vegan lifestyle years ago after watching a detailed video about animal agriculture. In addition to rescued goats, the 36-acre sanctuary is home to horses, cows, geese, peacocks, ducks and, more recently, cats. After the devastating 2025 Los Angeles wildfires, the organization helped place more than a dozen displaced cats in new homes, though most residents remain goats.
“We save lives,” Blum said. We raise [the goats]. We do the hard part of bottle feeding and castration. We send them out – they get to be grazers. Grazing companies don’t have to breed. It’s just a win, win, win.”
Spring is typically the busiest season, but the Bottle Babies Breakfast Club runs whenever the organization rescues newborn goats. Dates through early April are currently available. For updates and reservations, visit Goatlandia Farm Animal Sanctuary online or follow @goatlandia_sanctuary on Instagram.
1567 Cunningham Road, Sebastopol, 707-541-6216, goatlandia.org