In 2022, a 9-year-old girl was initially raising a pet goat named Sedir. at auction At the Shasta County Fair in Northern California. But he became attached to his floppy-eared brown-and-white goat and refused to sell it. The fair is designed to teach husbandry and responsibility through the care of farm animals, often culminating in an auction where the animals are sold.

When the little boy’s mother, Jessica Long, saw her daughter’s fondness for the pet, she decided not to put it up for auction. Long picked up the goat from the fair, offered to pay any expenses, and begged fair officials to let her daughter stay with Cedar. Instead, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office dispatched deputies with a search warrant to drive 200 miles across Northern California to find and seize the goat from Billy’s Mini Farm in Sonoma County, where Long had taken it until the dispute was resolved.

They threatened the Long family with charges of theft. Two Shasta County sheriff’s deputies went to the farm and seized the goat. law enforcement He did not have a search warrant but seized Cedar from the farm. The Fair ignored the family’s pleas and sold Cedar for $902; $63 of that was owed to the fair as part of the sale.

Cedar was sold for $902 and then slaughtered. The butcher’s identity is reportedly unknown and Cedar’s remains have still not been found.

Long said that when she learned of the girl’s fate, weeks after Cedar was abducted, she ran to her bed and cried under her covers. Long family files lawsuit against Shasta County Sheriff’s Office.

In an interview in 2022 with New York TimesGordon, who is co-director of Advancing Law for Animals, a nonprofit law firm specializing in complex animal cases. animal lawHe said sheriff’s deputies “are not judges” and have no right to decide who the true owner of Cedar is.

How will compensation be given to a minor?

Two years later, on Friday, U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd approved a settlement requiring Shasta County to pay Long and her daughter $300,000 to settle the federal case out of court. Long’s daughter, now 11, will be able to claim that amount once she reaches legal adulthood. The compensation will be held in a trust until then.

according to Los Angeles Timesthis case has been partially concluded and the case is ongoing; Long and her daughter’s allegations against Shasta County Fair employees and a 4-H volunteer remain ongoing.