Pet Goat (2 Viewers)

[Optimus Prime]

It’s kind of like Charlotte’s Web, except there’s no artistic spider (that we know of), the pig is a goat and real life is not a children’s book
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When a young California girl purchased a baby goat last spring, the intention was to eventually sell it at a county fair livestock auction. But after feeding and caring for the animal for months, she bonded with the goat, named Cedar, and wanted to keep it.

Instead, law enforcement officers allegedly travelled hundreds of miles to confiscate the pet, who was eventually slaughtered.

The story is laid out in a lawsuit, first reported by the Sacramento Bee, filed by the child’s parent this week, in a case that has sparked outrage and criticism that the police and the county fair went too far to reclaim the goat and send a child’s beloved pet to slaughter.

Jessica Long sued the Shasta county sheriff’s department seeking damages and accusing the agency of violating her daughter’s constitutional rights and wasting police resources by getting involved in a dispute between her family and a local fair association.

In July, “two sheriff’s deputies left their jurisdiction in Shasta county, drove over 500 miles at taxpayer expense, and crossed approximately six separate county lines, all to confiscate a young girl’s beloved pet goat”, the lawsuit states. “As a result, the young girl who raised Cedar lost him, and Cedar lost his life.”

According to the lawsuit, Long and her daughter purchased the baby goat while the child was enrolled in 4-H, a youth agriculture program popular in rural California. The intention of the program was that the goat would be raised by the family and eventually sold. But the girl, who is not even 10 years old, grew attached to Cedar. In June, when it was time to sell Cedar at a local fair livestock auction, she was “sobbing in his pen beside him”, the lawsuit states.

“[The girl] and Cedar bonded, just as [she] would have bonded with a puppy. She loved him as a family pet,” according to the lawsuit……

A girl wanted to keep the goat she raised for a county fair. They chose to kill it

A California lawsuit brought by the girl’s parents accuses law enforcement of traveling hundreds of miles to confiscate a beloved pet

www.theguardian.com

 

[Madmarsha]

Well, I know I'm scarred for life now.

 

[SystemShock]

I am a bit confused. The article says they purchased the goat, which would've made the goat their property?

 

[Sailorsaint]

I would raise such a stink, they would pay me to move out of state! Do that to my child? The Sonoma SO would go broke paying me, and the Senator would get lots of free advertisement because I would post an opinion in every county paper that would let me.

 

[CoolBrees]

4-H really did a good job of teaching here. You steal pets from children at every opportunity I say. Makes em tough and self reliant.

I mean what life lessons could a child possible learn from nurturing and caring for another being?

Nothing that’s what.

Here she learned both that life isn’t fair and people forking suck.

Seriously let the little girl have her goat for jeebus sakes. Congratulations on the 20# of goat meat you got in exchange for crushing a child.

 

[Optimus Prime]

The family of a child whose pet goat was seized and then slaughtered due to the technicalities of a county fair has received a $300,000 settlement from a California county.

Jessica Long sued Shasta county after sheriff’s deputies there seized her daughter’s goat, Cedar, for slaughter. The recent six-figure settlement to which Long’s family and the county agreed resolved the legal differences between them, though the litigation is still pending against other defendants.

The Long family’s ordeal began in June 2022 at the Shasta county fair. Long and her relatives put Cedar up for auction. But Long’s daughter – now nine – had a change of heart and realized she couldn’t part with her beloved goat and friend.


Long withdrew Cedar, then seven months old, from auction before bidding began – and offered in writing to compensate the goat’s buyer.

Shasta fair officials refused the withdrawal request, citing fair rules – and Cedar was sold for $902.

Long took matters into her own hands and took Cedar to a farm in Sonoma county, California – more than 200 miles (322km) away. But fair officials persisted, calling Long demanding that she return the goat.

The lawsuit asserts that after coming across an Instagram post galvanizing support to save the goat, a sheriff’s detective applied for a warrant to search a Napa county farm at the direction of his boss. A magistrate approved the warrant, Long’s lawsuit says.

But Cedar was nowhere to be found. The detective then allegedly travelled to other farms, for which he did not have search warrants.

Cedar was turned over “to third parties whom they deemed to be his rightful owner outside of any lawful judicial process” and eventually slaughtered. Long and her family, meanwhile, were out of town when the goat was killed.…..

US family reaches settlement after child’s goat was seized and slaughtered

Family receives $300,000 after technicalities of a California county fair led to the death of their daughter’s goat, Cedar

www.theguardian.com