{"id":675772,"date":"2026-05-17T01:08:21","date_gmt":"2026-05-17T01:08:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/675772\/"},"modified":"2026-05-17T01:08:21","modified_gmt":"2026-05-17T01:08:21","slug":"western-australias-first-fainting-goats-settle-into-farm-near-busselton","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/675772\/","title":{"rendered":"Western Australia’s first fainting goats settle into farm near Busselton"},"content":{"rendered":"

A farm stay in the South West is now home to Western Australia’s first fainting goats, after a breeding pair was imported from New South Wales.<\/p>\n

The myotonic goats are an American breed characterised by a hereditary condition that causes their legs to seize up when startled or excited, making the animals topple over or “faint”.<\/p>\n

The animals have been a feature of online humour and viral videos since the earliest days of the internet and social media.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Amber Kelly is breeding the first two fainting goats in Western Australia. (ABC South West WA: Madigan Landry)<\/p>\n

The goats, named Dora and Dwayne, are still settling into their new home in the South West, after Kevin Kelly saw a video of them on YouTube.<\/p>\n

Alongside his wife Amber, he owns a holiday accommodation business on their hobby farm in Busselton, about 220 kilometres south of Perth.<\/p>\n

The goats join a herd that includes donkeys and highland cattle.<\/p>\n

“He [Kevin] just fell in love with them. He thought they were really funny,” Ms Kelly said.<\/p>\n

But she said it was a misconception that the goats were constantly keeling over.<\/p>\n

“I actually haven’t seem them [faint],” Ms Kelly said.<\/p>\n

“[But] Dora had a little fainting episode where my husband came around a corner and she got a little fright.<\/p>\n

“If you want a freak show, they’re not your goat, they’ve got more dignity than that \u2026 that’s not why we got them.”<\/p>\n

Her experience was backed up by what the ABC witnessed, with neither Dora or Dwayne fainting over several hours of filming.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Myotonic goats Dora and Dwayne enjoy eating muesli and eucalyptus leaves. (ABC South West WA: Neve Brissenden)<\/p>\n

Why do the goats faint?<\/p>\n

New South Wales-based breeder Paul Hamilton brought the breed to Australia in 2015, importing embryos from Tennessee in the United States.<\/p>\n

He said the fainting was caused by a genetic mutation in the animal.<\/p>\n

“They\u00a0basically have\u00a0two contractions for every one relaxation if they get stressed,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

As a breed, myotonic goats originated in Tennessee in the United States. (ABC South West WA: Madigan Landry)<\/p>\n

“If they get a couple of those impulses going on together, they just lock up and over.”<\/p>\n

He owns a herd of about 60 of the breed in NSW, with Dora and Dwayne the only other two in the country.<\/p>\n

Mr Hamilton said fainting was not painful for the goats.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“They’re\u00a0not squawking or\u00a0screaming\u00a0or I\u00a0don’t\u00a0feel that the heartbeat’s racing when they fall over,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Dora is the female of the pair. (ABC South West WA: Neve Brissenden)<\/p>\n

But he dislikes videos he sees of the goats fainting continuously.<\/p>\n

“It’s not something which they’re going to do unless they’re really highly stressed,” he said.<\/p>\n

The goats were originally bred for their meat, and have a distinctive, pleasant taste.<\/p>\n

“My attraction to Tennessee meat goats is more their muscling pattern and what they can do to make a true meat goat,” Mr Hamilton said.<\/p>\n

The Kellys said Dwayne and Dora would not be used for meat and would instead be kept as pets for breeding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A farm stay in the South West is now home to Western Australia’s first fainting goats, after a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":675773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,325797,325794,325793,325795,325800,325796,325799,44,41844,45,325798],"class_list":["post-675772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-can-you-have-a-fainting-goat-as-a-pet","tag-fainting-goat-breeder","tag-fainting-goats","tag-fainting-goats-south-west","tag-fainting-goats-wa","tag-goats-as-pets","tag-myotonic-goat","tag-news","tag-south-west-news","tag-wa-news","tag-why-do-goats-faint"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=675772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/675772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/675773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=675772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=675772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=675772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}