Was It The Right Thing To Do...

If the dog is willing to kill a LIVING small animal then it can easily do the same to a small child or another small animal. No amount of training can get rid of it now. That is part of his psychology. It's like humans, many of us have thought about killing someone who has pissed us off, but we don't act upon them. When we do we are punished very severely.

Around the ranch here there are two things that dogs must never do, attack a human or go after livestock. Both earn them a bullet. Even a dog just chasing cows for fun without any means of actually attacking them can be shot by the owners of said cows. That being said only a single dog has ever had to be put down and it was for attacking a horse.

That being said be 100% sure that the dog attacked the baby goat. Something else could have easily killed the goat and the dog just happened come along afterwards.