Goat race meetings attract big crowds in several regional towns, but once media begins to pay attention, the 'keep out' sign is put up.

It was promoted as not-to-be-missed, old-fashioned country fun - a fight for the title of best goat and driver, as part of the annual Spring Festival in Woolbrook, a beautiful little hamlet near Tamworth in NSW.

Seen as daring family entertainment for townsfolk, the activity has animal welfare experts saying it’s terrifying and maiming goats and child riders, and is barbaric and cruel, akin to Spanish bull fights.

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Emma Hurst of Animal Liberation believes what's become an Australian country tradition - racing goats, especially feral ones - should be banned.

“We're seeing goats falling, crashing, screaming - all sorts of cruel events, and then you've got these children that are put in harm's way as well,” Hurst said.

“They were screaming when they were hitting the ground, and they were screaming while they were tethered. They don't tend to vocalise unless they are in a lot of distress, so these animals were clearly in distress,” she explained.

“They were clearly unused to any sort of form of human contact, and that's why it's considered an entertainment spectacle - because these animals are frightened, they run, left, right, forward, backwards. They are crashing into each other, carriages are flying, and they're crashing into fences.”

Captured goats are restrained and tethered by the tips of their horns, rather than the correct way, by the base.

“The goats’ horns are attached to their brains, and the tops of the horns can actually break off - that's quite clearly stated in the Code of Practice for the Welfare of Animals. For goats, the tips of their horns were tethered onto fences where they would try to struggle to try to escape. I saw eight times that goats were dragged by the tips of their horns,” Hurst said.

Woolbrook local Janelle however is adamant the goats are treated carefully.

“The horns can't break,” she said. “They are the hardest part of their body.”

As witnessed previously at Lightning Ridge and Bundarra, where adults as well as children race feral goats, the animals are indeed pulled and dragged by the horn tips, which does result in horns being torn off.

Because of previous stories and investigations by Animal Liberation and the RSPCA, the goat races at Lightning Ridge and Bundarra have been cancelled.

But here in this isolated little town that is not the case, and trying to film resulted in being hounded.

Hurst believes the Woolbrook races exhibited breaches of Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Laws and Code of Practice.

“The goats were very confused. They're absolutely terrified, and some of the children actually looked quite frightened as well. They're in a completely foreign environment and they are being forced to race - they're being pushed and shoved.”

Tony Kennelly, the President of the Woolbrook Community Development Committee sees the races as simple family fun.

“The goats enjoy the run. They love it. They have a bit of fun, and you don't see them under stress,” Kennelly said.

“They all had a good time. The kids had a good time, and no one got injured, and no one got harmed. It is all about a family day out.”

But Hurst disagrees, saying “if the goats were having fun they wouldn't be trying to escape., It's only a matter of time before a goat is killed or very seriously injured, or one of the children are also severely injured.”