Goat's 9-year-old keeper didn't want her slaughtered, so Mom saved the animal; then the law came with a warrant

Jessica Long’s 9-year-old daughter with her goat, Cedar.

(Photo courtesy of Advancing Law for Animals)

A mother saved her daughter's goat, sold at auction, from the slaughterhouse. County-fair officials took offense and sent detectives to apprehend it.

"Thus began the legal saga of Cedar the goat, a 7-month-old white Boer goat with chocolate markings framing its face who is now the subject of a federal civil rights lawsuit naming Shasta sheriff's officials, Shasta County, the Shasta District Fair and other defendants who are accused of involvement in the apparent slaughter of Cedar for a community barbecue," reports Sam Stanton of The Sacramento Bee. 

"Every day for three months, Jessica Long's young daughter walked and fed her goat. . . But when it was time for Cedar to be sold and slaughtered at the Shasta District Fair last year, the 9-year-old just couldn't go through with it," Stanton reports. "The animals are then entered in an auction to be sold and slaughtered for meat in hopes of teaching children about the work and care needed to raise livestock and provide food."

Once Long realized her daughter was not ready to part with her goat, she "decided to break the rules and take the goat that night and deal with the consequences later," reports Salvador Hernandez of the Los Angeles Times. Long wrote Shasta District Fair Chief Executive Melanie Silva, offering to reimburse the buyer the winning $902 bid and saying, "Our daughter lost three grandparents within the last year. . . . I couldn't bear the thought of the following weeks of sadness after the slaughter of her first livestock animal." Silva replied, "Making an exception for you will only teach [our] youth that they do not have to abide by the rules. . . . This has been a negative experience for the fairgrounds as this has been all over Facebook and Instagram."

When Long did not return Cedar, B.J. Macfarlane, livestock manager for the Shasta Fair Association, called the cops. "Armed with a search warrant, detectives drove more than 500 miles across Northern California in search of the goat," Stanton writes. "Echoing language used when law enforcement searches a home for drugs, the warrant allowed deputies to 'utilize breaching equipment to force open doorway(s), entry doors, exit doors, and locked containers' and to search all rooms. . . . any kind large enough to accommodate a small goat'." 

Cedar was found, "taken and slaughtered," Hernandez reports. Long's suit claims fair officials and the county "committed an 'egregious waste of police resources' and violated her and her daughter's Fourth Amendment and 14th Amendment rights protecting them from unreasonable searches and seizures, and due process. Long and her attorneys allege the dispute was a civil matter she was willing to resolve."

Officials declined to comment. Ryan Gordon, an attorney with Advancing Law for Animals, told Hernandez, "A child can't be held to the same standard as an adult can. When she wanted out, she had an absolute right. . . . It's shocking. It's a little girl's goat, not Pablo Escobar."