But are they actually doing good?
http://debatepedia.idebate.org/en/index.php/Debate:Goat,_give_at_Christmas
Giving a farm animal is often a very poor way of helping a family in the developing world. Families often do not know how to care properly for the animals they receive and even if they do, they may not have the resources to look after them properly. For example, farm animals need fodder, large quantities of water, some sort of shelter, and veterinary care, any or all of which may be in short supply in poor communities. It would be better to put limited resources to work in improving arable farming, which is a much more efficient way of producing food from scarce land and water than meat production. Finally, given the environmental destruction animals such as goats can cause, their inappropriate donation can actually impoverish communities even further in the longer term.
http://www.animalpeoplenews.org/07/1/livestockgiftcharities1_07.html
"Farming animals is an inefficient, expensive and environmentally destructive way of producing food," Tyler continued. "Sceptical readers might accuse me of dressing up a concern about animal welfare as a concern for the world's poor. There are major animal welfare issues involved in sending animals to, for instance, the Horn of Africa, where earlier this year up to 80% of the cattle perished in a drought. Many of the remainder were washed away in the floods that followed. But this is not about cows taking precedence over people. Reality is that animal gift schemes are, in the words of the World Land Trust, 'environmentally unsound and economically disastrous.'"
"Oxfam, Christian Aid, Help the Aged, and others are wooing the ethical shopper with pictures of cute goats wearing Christmas hats and promises of helping the poor in developing countries," summarized Sean O'Neill of The Times of London, "but the World Land Trust and Animal Aid say that it is 'madness' to send goats, cows and chickens to areas where they will add to the problems of drought and desertification."
Said World Land Trust director John Burton, "The goat campaign may be a pleasing gift and a short-term fix for milk and meat for a few individuals, but in the long term the quality of life for these people will slowly be reduced with devastating effect."
Added Andrew Tyler, "All farmed animals require proper nourishment, large quantities of water, shelter from extremes, and veterinary care. Such resources are in critically short supply in much of Africa," the major recipient of help from the British livestock-donating charities.
