SHASTA COUNTY, CA – A nine-year-old girl who raised a goat for the Shasta District Fair had her furry friend confiscated and butchered in 2022 by deputies, according to Salvador Hernandez’s report in the Los Angeles Times.
But now, two years after the initial confiscation, Shasta County settled the dispute by paying the young girl’s family $300,000 after the loss of the goat, named Cedar, said the Times.
In preparation for the 2022 Shasta County Fair, the girl raised Cedar as part of a program intended to teach young individuals how to take care of farm animals. However, when the goat was meant to be sold to be butchered, Jessica Long’s daughter could not do it, as reported by the LA Times.
Long took Cedar away from the fair, offered to pay the necessary costs, and pleaded with fair officials to allow her daughter to keep the beloved goat.
However, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office “deployed deputies, search warrant in hand, to drive hundreds of miles across Northern California to find and take the goat from Billy’s Mini Farm, where Long had taken him until the dispute was resolved,” wrote the LA Times.
According to the LA Times, it is unknown who contacted and instructed the sheriff’s office to get involved in this dispute.
In a federal lawsuit, “Long and her daughter alleged deputies wrongfully took out a search warrant, seized Cedar, and turned the animal over to fair officials. Attorneys also accused county and fair officials of using law enforcement to intervene in what they said was a legal civil dispute over who owned the goat,” reported the LA Times.
As stated in the news report, Cedar was ultimately bought at the fair for $902 and butchered. However, the person who did this remains unclear.
On Nov. 1, US District Judge Dale A. Drozd in Sacramento Federal Court approved the settlement that requires Shasta County to pay $300,000 to Long and her daughter, said the LA Times.
Vanessa Shakib, one of Long’s attorneys, stated, “Unfortunately, this litigation cannot bring Cedar home. But the $300,000 settlement with the County of Shasta and Shasta County Sheriff’s Office is the first step forward,” the LA Times wrote.
The LA Times said the settlement “brings about a partial end to what has been two years of litigation between Long and Shasta County and fair officials.”
Shakib stated the fair and county officials have engaged in “obstructionist discovery tactics” in an attempt to “avoid answering key questions about what happened to the goat, and what role officials played in seizing and destroying the animal,” said the LA Times.
“Years later this case still has several unanswered questions,” argued Shakib, noting after two years of reviewing texts, emails, phone records, and depositions the county and fair officials have “yet to make clear who butchered Cedar, what happened to his meat and who got sheriff deputies involved in the dispute,” the LA Times wrote.
The LA Times said that “text messages uncovered during the federal lawsuit suggest that fair officials wanted to keep secret what happened to Cedar and who was involved.”
The LA Times reported, “Long attorneys have argued in court that finding out who killed Cedar, and who contacted law enforcement, is key to their case. Long and her attorney reached out before the goat was butchered and told sheriff, fair and county officials they were disputing ownership of the goat.”
Shakib said that “still, someone decided to order that Cedar be seized and killed despite knowing a lawsuit was incoming,” reported the LA Times.
The lawsuit is still ongoing, despite the partial settlement with Shasta County and the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office, added the LA Times, writing, “Long and her daughter still have claims against Shasta District Fair employees and a 4-H volunteer.”
And attorney Shakib said that “attorneys are still reviewing discovery, including phone records, to try to find out what happened to Cedar,” the LA Times wrote.
