Ok, here is my opinion on this. I completely understand the fun playing w/ the goat! I don't believe there was any harm to the goat or people involved. HOWEVER! The other people are right that the goat is being taught bad habits.
When I was a kid we had a pygmy/alpine/nubian doe that we bottle raised, we were older kids (12+) and it was alot of fun to push her and run, get her riled up and run from her, she'd do the same, jump on hind legs, she never progressed to head butting but she didn't diffentiate between one person to the next, she knew who her favorite playmates were, but new people were fair game to try and goad into a game! I guess more then anything she scared people, and I wouldn't doubt some left telling others we had an aggressive animal. If someone got scared and ran, of course she chased them which didn't help matters! For a time she had free run of the property. Now we taught her that!! It was fun for us and her, and we didn't see the harm. People did get hurt by her, she wasn't intentially hurting anyone, but because of the way we played w/ her, hard to explain exactly, but basically she was quicker to react w/ her head, wasn't a problem for adults and older children, a bump w/ her horns didn't cause any harm, but a child's face lined up about where her horns were, so if she turned her head to quickly she could get them in the face, and she did bloody a few lips. Now I realize any horned goat can accidently hit someone w/ a horn, but it was the way she moved because of how we played w/ her that made it abit more likely w/ her. Now of course we could prevent anyone from getting hurt by keeping her locked up all the time, but was that really fair to her? Because of what 'we' did?
I fully understand not seeing the harm in playing w/ the goat, but I think the OP would have more easily listened and considered what was being said if it had been brought up alittle differently. No one really explained 'why' it was bad (and I think people were confussed about what the problem was), instead of making it sound like he was stupid or lacked common since.
I have a similar story about one of my dogs! And I've seen people do things equally dangerous w/ dogs. (I don't really get the training doesn't make a different comments, so why do we do it then? Yes animals are animals so you should always take proper precausions, but training and not teaching bad habits give you the best change of not being hurt).
I could teach my goats bad habits and prevent anyone from being in danger by not allowing them in the pen, but is that really fair to the goats, or the children that live here? They aren't even allowed to interact w/ the animals? I want them to be able to learn about animals, how to care for them and interact w/ them, that isn't going to happen if they aren't even allowed in the pen! At some point I'd like them to be able to help w/ feeding, watering, milking, etc. but that ain't going to happen if they can't even enter the pen until they are 12 years old. It's easy to say don't leave them unattended, they never are! But if Baby was going to accidently injure someone w/ her horns, you could be standing right there and you wouldn't be able to stop it, so the only way would be not to let them in the pen, at all!! And if you sold the goat you wouldn't have any control!
I have a herd of Nubians, Boers, LaMancha, and nigis, the boers and one nubian are horned, I feel completely comfortable w/ the kids (human) being in the pen w/ any of them, and yes I regularly turn my back! The worst that happens is some of the nigi kids like hair, and my 2 year old neice (who loves to help bottle feed) doesn't like when they eat hers! And I do play w/ my goats! Running and jumping on things, hugging them and loving all over them, there is good play and there is bad play!
Wow that got long!! I'm sure I had more to say, but I better quit here!
