Shasta County has agreed to a settlement two years after the incident
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An 11-year-old girl has received a significant payout from a California police department after a heartbreaking ordeal in which her beloved pet goat was seized and slaughtered, sparking a strange and emotional legal battle.
The young girl was left devastated when police took her goat, Cedar, after she expressed to her mother that she couldn't bear the thought of him being sent to slaughter.
Jessica Long, the girl’s mother, decided to take legal action against the Shasta County Sheriff's Office in 2023, a year after her daughter, then nine, lost her cherished goat in the distressing incident.
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On Friday, November 1, US District Judge Dale A. Drozd approved a settlement requiring Shasta County, California, to pay $300,000 to resolve the case outside of court.
Back when Long's daughter was nine, she had started raising Cedar as part of a livestock auction program at the Shasta District Fair.
This program aimed to teach kids how to care for farm animals and handle the responsibilities involved.
The goat is thought to have been slaughtered after being seized
Advancing Law For Animals
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But when it came time to part with Cedar, the young girl found it impossible to let him go and tearfully told her mother she didn't want her beloved pet to be sent to slaughter.
As reported by the New York Post, the lawsuit included this detail: "After the auction, [the daughter] would not leave Cedar's side."
"[She] loved Cedar and the thought of him going to slaughter was something she could not bear. While sobbing in his pen beside him, [she] communicated to her mother she didn't want Cedar to go to slaughter."
When Jessica Long tried to intervene, the fair officials informed her that the rules didn't allow her or her daughter to keep Cedar once he was entered in the auction.
In the auction, Cedar was sold to Republican California State Senator Brian Dahle for $902, with seven percent of the sale going to the auction.
However, Dahle offered to cancel the purchase and even paid the fair's commission to make it official, hoping to help the family keep Cedar.
But the situation didn’t end there.
The family was stunned when police traveled over 500 miles to seize the goat
Advancing Law for Animals
When the fair continued to refuse to release the goat, Long took matters into her own hands. She decided to remove Cedar and took him to a farm in Sonoma County.
The Shasta County Sheriff's Office then obtained a warrant and reportedly drove nearly 500 miles round-trip to retrieve Cedar.
However, there were claims that the warrant was actually for the wrong farm.
The lawsuit states that officers ultimately found and seized Cedar without presenting a valid warrant.
Cedar is believed to have been slaughtered afterward, though it remains unclear exactly who was responsible.
Attorney Vanessa Shakib, representing Jessica Long, commented: "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."