County Must Pay $300K for Butchering Young Girl’s Goat

A 9-year-old girl who fell in love with the goat she raised for a California county fair was devastated when deputy sheriffs seized, and eventually had butchered, the floppy-eared pet named Cedar. Now the County Sheriff's office must pay $300,000 to settle this atrocity. 

(We’ll see if New York’s bloodthirsty bureaucrats will have to pay for murdering Peanut the squirrel and Fred the raccoon.)

The girl, identified publicly as E.L., had raised Cedar for the 2022 Shasta District Fair in Northern California, part of a 4-H program intended to teach youngsters how to care for farm animals, even those intended as meat. But when it came time to slaughter Cedar, E.L. couldn’t do it.

E.L.’s family begged the fair to spare Cedar, which it had auctioned off for $902. They said no. During the dispute, E.L.’s mom took Cedar to a farm 200 miles away in Sonoma County, but eventually a pair of Shasta County sheriff’s deputies showed up at the farm and seized the goat.

It is not known who contacted the sheriff’s office or where they brought Cedar, nor do we know who butchered him and who ended up with the meat. E.L. 's family, with assistance from the animal-rights org Advancing Law for Animals, pressed for answers in a lawsuit, which finally cost the county $300,000 to make go away. County officials deny any wrongdoing.

“The County did nothing wrong, but we recognize the risk and cost involved in going to trial, and so we agreed to settle the case,” Christopher Pisano, an attorney for Shasta County tells the Seattle Times. “We are happy to be moving on and putting this case behind us.”

But E.L.’s mom is not happy to move on. The family still has legal claims against Shasta District Fair employees and at least one 4-H volunteer. They want to know who made the decisions that led to Cedar’s murder and who ended up eating him. Thanks to the county, they now have the cash to pursue the case.

Photo credit: Advancing Law for Animals