An 11-year-old girl in California has been awarded a $300,000 settlement after a traumatic encounter with the police who seized and slaughtered her beloved pet goat.
Jessica Long’s daughter, who was just 9 years old at the time, had been devastated when her pet goat, Cedar, was taken away by officers in 2022. The mother sued the department in 2023.
The settlement was reached on November 1 with the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office and several involved officers, as reported by Courthouse News Service.
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The incident began in April 2022 when the young girl received Cedar as a gift and began caring for him as part of a youth program aimed at preparing animals for the Shasta District Fair’s livestock auction.
Initially, the girl had planned to sell Cedar at the fair, but after growing close to him, she couldn’t bear the thought of him being sold for meat.
When the time came for Cedar to be auctioned off in July, the girl refused to part with him, sobbing beside him in his pen. “She loved Cedar and the thought of him going to slaughter was something she could not bear,” the lawsuit stated.
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Despite the girl’s wishes, the fair insisted that its rules prohibited Cedar from being removed from the auction. He was sold to Republican State Senator Brian Dahle for $902, though no money was exchanged after Dahle agreed to void the purchase.
The fair refused to release Cedar, prompting Long to take matters into her own hands by retrieving him from the auction and sending him to a farm in Sonoma County.
In response, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office obtained a warrant to seize Cedar, driving 500 miles round trip to retrieve him.
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However, they mistakenly had the wrong farm listed in their warrant. They eventually found the goat and took him without a proper legal order.
Cedar was later slaughtered, and his meat was reportedly served at a community barbecue.
Though the family has secured the settlement, Long’s daughter remains heartbroken. “The young girl who raised Cedar lost him, and Cedar lost his life,” the lawsuit stated. The $300,000 will be placed in a trust for the girl, but the emotional loss remains.
