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.
Long filed the federal lawsuit in the eastern district of California against the county and the sheriff’s office employees, alleging they violated her and her daughter’s right to due process as well as their right against unreasonable search and seizure.
“As a result, the young girl who raised Cedar lost him, and Cedar lost his life,” the lawsuit said. “Now plaintiffs can never get him back.”
“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 in moving forward,” attorney Vanessa Shakib, co-director of Advancing Law for Animals, said in an Instagram post.
Shakib said Long was still pursuing litigation against the fair organizers, employees and a volunteer.
The California department of food and agriculture, which oversees the fair, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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