Kipper's Legacy

Nature is a cycle. With every new addition that comes to the world, there is an older counterpart that bids us farewell. If anyone understands this more than anyone else, it's those who surround themselves with animals. Whether you just simply keep pets, work with them, raise livestock, or even just love them, you are acutely aware that most will pass away during your lifetime. Some animals are lucky to be in our care, to be doted on and spoiled, kept from as much harm as we can manage to live healthy lives - be it shorter ones or longer ones. For those that live out to old age, bonds are made alongside memories.

Today, we want to honor a very special goat, one we can only hope many people have had the honor to meet and make memories with.

This specific goat would be Kipper, an old Arapawa that spent many, many years under the care team over at Sedgwick County Zoo in Wichita, KS.

Kipper came to SCZ originally from the SVF Foundation, a non-profit organization that works in the preservation of rare, endangered breeds. At the zoo, she became a very important foundation to the Arapawa Island Goat breeding program, and boy did she do a wonderful job! In her 17 years of life (birth date on 1/9/2008), not only did she bring smiles to the faces of guests at the zoo with her kind demeanor, but she contributed great numbers to the conservation of her breed. With 349 descendants down to great-great grandchildren, she truly earned a name for herself.

She can be found in many pedigrees across numerous herds, and we encourage you to give a look over yours just to see how much work she put in!

There are so many goats like Kipper while equally being no other goat just like her. If you've met her, you know how much she loved a good scratch between the horns and undivided attention. We are more than happy to see how long she got to live under such loving care, and heartbroken to see her go because truly, they can never be around long enough.

Our hearts go out to the SCZ team, to her caretakers, and those close to her. We honor her in her offspring, her grandkids, every kid we have because of the headway she made to saving her breed. For in our mourning of her loss, this is still a celebration of her life and every founder goat no longer with us.

With all of our love, we will miss you, Kipper. And we thank you for everything you've done for us.