When a 9-year-old girl didn't want her goat to be slaughtered, county fair officials sent deputies..

[Mosby]

Last edited Sat Apr 1, 2023, 05:42 PM - Edit history (2)

When a 9-year-old girl didn’t want her goat to be slaughtered, county fair officials sent deputies after it.


Every day for three months, Jessica Long’s young daughter walked and fed her goat, bonding with the brown and white floppy-eared animal named Cedar. 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.

“My daughter sobbed in her pen with her goat,” Long wrote to the Shasta County fair’s manager on June 27, 2022. “The barn was mostly empty and at the last minute I decided to break the rules and take the goat that night and deal with the consequences later.”

Long purchased the goat for her daughter to enter into the 4-H program with the Shasta District Fair. Children are taught how to care for farm animals. The animals are then entered in an auction to be sold and then slaughtered for meat in hopes of teaching children about the work and care needed to raise livestock and provide food, as farmers and ranchers do.

In her letter, Long pleaded for the fair to make an exception and let her and her daughter take Cedar back. Aware that Cedar had already been sold in auction, she also offered to “pay you back for the goat and any other expenses I caused,” according to the letter obtained by The Times.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-03-30/goat-slaughter-shasta-county-fair

Summary:

A young girl didn’t want to slaughter the goat she raised for 4H. The state senator who bought the goat at auction agreed to let it live out its days eating weeds. But sheriff’s deputies, with an official warrant in hand, drove to a farm 500 miles away, took Cedar the goat and transported him back to Shasta County where an unnamed 3rd party killed him. It's not clear at this point how the carcass was disposed of. Nine year old Jessica Long learned some valuable lessons that day, but probably not the ones that 4H and Shasta District Fair intended.

[Emile]

1. What a sad story.

“Our daughter lost three grandparents within the last year, and our family has had so much heartbreak and sadness that I couldn’t bear the thought of the following weeks of sadness after the slaughter of her first livestock animal,” she wrote to Shasta District Fair Chief Executive Melanie Silva.

[Silent3]

2. But at least the girl wasn't traumatized by seeing a man in a dress

No surprise this happened in a heavily Republican county.

[Kittycatkat]

3. WTF. We need these sick f@#ks out of positions of authority in this country.

Enough is enough!

[Phoenix61]

5. A group of birds is a flock, a group of cows is a herd.

What’s a group of assholes? Unbelievable they would do something like that. Bunch of bs about making kids follow the rules when he blatantly did not follow the rules. What a vindictive asshole.

[barbtries]

20. What's a group of assholes?

republicans.

they're cruel. the same people screaming that trump should get away with all of his crimes are gonna teach this girl a lesson about following the rules even though it would not have cost them a dime to let her keep the goat.

hateful, awful people.

[icymist]

57. I believe they call them a prolaspe

As in a prolapse of assholes

Republicans also work for me.

[jmowreader]

65. That would be "a Trump of assholes"

[Phoenix61]

66. Made me LOL! nt

[onecaliberal]

4. What the fuck?

[c-rational]

6. Enough. All these morons need to be removed from positions of power.

[Freethinker65]

7. Would these same assholes send armed LE to retrieve pardoned turkeys?

How about owners that decide to keep their chickens around well after they have stopped laying eggs?

The county was out no money. The Senator that won the bid was fine with the arrangement. What a waste of taxpayer resources.

[Bev54]

8. This has been a rule in most 4H shows and other agriculture shows as well for

many many years. I have seen local fairs and clubs changing those rules because they did not make a lot of sense. Show cattle were being slaughtered when in fact they could have gone to other shows for competition and children were not prepared to give up their animals after raising and showing them. The auction is how they fund their club and the person or business bidding, gets something in return for their money other than just advertising that they supported the club. The animal was usually sent directly to the abattoir, so it is not secretly kept alive for further competition (I never really understood this). Time for this all to end and perhaps the person or business purchasing the animal, if up for auction, to decide what to do with it, whether to show it or sell it live or slaughter it (or give it back to the child).

[lostnfound]

12. The sheriffs already killed the goat. The man who bought it had agreed otherwise

The man who bought it (an R Representative) agreed they could send the goat to a farm that uses them for weed control.
The sheriffs used a WARRANT to get the goat and kill it, TO TEACH THE GIRL A LESSON.

[sl8]

18. I don't think they did.

Last edited Sat Apr 1, 2023, 01:33 PM - Edit history (1)

From article, it sounds like the fair officials had the goat slaughtered. That's who's being sued. And that's who the family's lawyer is accusing of trying to "teach a lesson", not the police.

On edit:
The family is suing both the fair officials and the county. I don't know whether the county is being sued due to the deputies' actions, or due to their affiliation with the fair.

[See my correction in the following post]

[sl8]

31. Correction to my last:

Law enforcement is included in the lawsuit:

LIEUTENANT JERRY FERNANDEZ, in his individual capacity; DETECTIVE JACOB DUNCAN, in his individual; DETECTIVE JEREMY ASHBEE, in his individual capacity;
SHASTA DISTRICT FAIR AND EVENT CENTER, a district agricultural association;
COUNTY OF SHASTA; SHASTA COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT; MELANIE SILVA, in her individual capacity; BJ MACFARLANE, in his individual capacity; and DOES 1 through 10,

https://reason.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/E.D.Cal_._2-22-cv-01527-DAD-AC_16_0.pdf

[Bev54]

43. Yes and that is why it needs to change, I know it has been changing in Canada

[ripcord]

71. The lawmaker had donated the goat to charity

The charity was the rightful owner at that point so the goat was returned to them, they slaughtered and bbqed it.

[NullTuples]

26. The 4-H auction system horrified me when my spouse explained it to me (they'd been 4H as a child).

To be very clear: I still strongly disagree with the morality & ethics, without reservation. Also, my spouse quit b/c of the policy.

The system used exists or at least historically came about because 4H was originally for farm kids. And in that subculture if a family member is going to be of any use around the farm/ranch, they have to be able to very narrowly detach emotionally from the animals they're raising. "Narrowly" because the goal is to be able to care very much about the animals they raise, and then be able to shut that off when it's time to kill them. 4H helps train them for that role, and helps teach them to set up the emotional trauma responses & defenses to be able to kill animals without the guilt that would otherwise occur. Guilt because they'd once cared very deeply for those animals, both physically and emotionally. Taking away the animals after the auction & immediately slaughtering them is seen as being like "yanking off the band-aid" so to speak; it's sudden, immediate and there's no going back. The child must either learn to deal with it or give up the subculture that has supported and sustained them for much of their childhood.

If all that reads like indoctrination to you, I would not argue otherwise.

[dchill]

32. This is one of the reasons we need...

...the word "indoctrination."

[Jilly_in_VA]

9. What they said

“County officials were clear that they wanted to teach this little girl a lesson.”

What a bunch of assholes. Bullying a 9 year old girl to "make your point" and using up police resources to do so--after someone bought the goat and agreed to let it live. OTOH, there has to be a better word than "asshole" for these guys. Assholes serve a useful function. I don't think these guys do. JFC.

[patphil]

17. The world doesn't need these kind of lessons to be taught to 9 yr. old girls.

My guess is she will now realize that deliberately cruel people exist and can have power over other people.
She has seen what loveless people can do to hurt someone, and how they went out of their way to do so.

[Traildogbob]

28. Right.

Slaughtering 9 year olds in schools teach the real lesson’s to children. You are out of them womb, fuck you. Slaughter is part of life after you exit.

[patphil]

51. Thanks for taking this that one big step further...it's a cruel world for sure.

More true now than ever.

[sl8]

22. To be clear, that's a quote from the lawyer that's suing the county, not from the county officials.

I'm not defending them, they sound like real assholes, but, so far, we've only heard one side.

[mucifer]

11. We have so much food available. We don't need to eat animals.

[ExWhoDoesntCare]

68. Speak for yourself

I'm allergic to so many plant foods that I absolutely must have meat to get the calories and nutrients I need to function.

[lostnfound]

13. Killing kindness. Not a bug but a feature. Nt

[Kid Berwyn]

15. Fascism: Accept No Substitute.

‘A Design for Fascism’:

President Reagan’s Attempts to Parse the Politics of the New Deal

https://cafe.com/article/a-design-for-fascism-president-reagans-attempts-to-parse-the-politics-of-the-new-deal/

[hippywife]

14. While I think this went ALL wrong...

according to the article, the deputies didn't "kill the goat" as stated in your "summary".

In an amended complaint filed in February, Long claims the officers were then "required by law to hold Cedar or deliver him to the Magistrate" so the court could determine Cedar's ownership. But instead, they "independently deemed unknown third parties…to be the owners of Cedar" and delivered him back to the fairgrounds.

[Mosby]

53. I'm usually a careful reader.

But I wasn't as careful with this one, it was a hard read for me.

[hippywife]

54. I hope you'll consider...

editing your summary for all the folks who won't be reading down this far.

[Mosby]

56. Done.

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

16. sick

[Rebl2]

19. How sick.

[TeamProg]

21. Cops gotta kill! n/t

[Karadeniz]

23. Could ththe parents have withdrawn the goat from the fair before judging?

[Bantamfancier]

30. Short answer, yes.

Not knowing all the particulars of this county fair, we cannot say for certain who is the asshol here. Having served on fairboard and livestock committees, there are numerous formats to the livestock sales and how the ownership transfers upon sale. Also there are state regs concerning partial vs full terminal sales. The stance of ODA here in Ohio is that they would prefer all market projects go to slaughter. But it is up to the local board to decide.

The problem is it really doesn’t hit the kids until they are in the sale ring that that’s it, the last time they will see an animal they have invested so much time and effort in. Especially the young ones.

I will say this seems extreme to me, surely some compromise could have been reached.

[roamer65]

24. Congrats, sick fuck cops.

Now the girl will hate you scumbags for the rest of her life.

And rightly so.

I hope the lawsuit bankrupts them.

[Duppers]

27. +10000

I loved my farm critters & never forgave my father.

[intheflow]

70. Fern, is that you?

[SWBTATTReg]

25. Farming/ranching has a lot of pitfalls, a lot of hard knocks about life on the farm/ranch, that are

not so easy for a lot of people to understand/accept, after all, you're in the business to make a profit if at all possible.

What I'm surprised about, is that they (the fairgrounds authorities etc.) wouldn't bend or break the rule(s) one time, that is, have a little compassion? If anything, they should have allowed either a substitution or perhaps some sort of compensation for the goat's cost/replacement value? I fear that what they have done is the reverse, install a hatred in that young child's life that will take a long time to heal.

[Hekate]

29. "This is a goat, not Pablo Escobar"-- comment on the draconian search warrant

[sl8]

33. Lawsuit (PDF) :

https://reason.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/E.D.Cal_._2-22-cv-01527-DAD-AC_16_0.pdf

[dchill]

34. "County officials." It's a definite type.

To many of them, it means "King of the World."

[Girard442]

35. I'm truly sorry the girl got ambushed, but...

...this system has been in place so long I remember reading a short story about it in the 60's.

[Grins]

36. Deputies drove 500 MILES???

How big is that county?

[sl8]

37. 3 counties:

From the lawsuit:

On July 8, 2022, at the taxpayers’ expense, and to the exclusion of investigating legitimate crimes in Shasta County, Defendant Fernandez and Defendant Duncan drove at least 500 miles over approximately 10 hours to Napa County, and then Sonoma County, to seize a young girl’s beloved goat for slaughter.

[Raine]

38. So sad 💔😔😪 nt

[Demobrat]

39. The worst part is she could have learned so many lessons from this.

She could have learned that there are good and decent people in the world. She could have learned that good things can happen. She could have learned that a policeman can be on your side.

But no. She got to learn that the world is hard and cruel place and people in uniform are her enemy.

Good job, assholes.

I wonder if they would have done that to a little boy.

[NCjack]

40. Perhaps she did learn some lessons.

Grow up and be an advocate of children's rights.

[orleans]

45. "I wonder if they would have done that to a little boy."

i'm gonna say yes they would have
with the twisted thought process that the boy needs to toughen up and stop acting like a girl

"She got to learn that the world is hard and cruel place and people in uniform are her enemy"
i couldn't agree more.

[appleannie1]

41. They taught her a lesson all right. They taught her adults can't be trusted.

I was a 4-H leader for years. Our chapter would never have done something like that.

[Warpy]

42. "Rules are rules!" I agree that this was handled very, very badly

Still, the 4H programs teach kids where their meat comes from, that it's OK to be sad when an animal's time for slaughter comes. It's a tough lesson even for kids who grow up on farms and see livestock being shipped off every year for auction and slaughter. It's a lesson every farm kid needs to learn. Most of them cry, no matter what animal they got to raise.

It sounds like this kid wasn't properly prepared by her parents or anyone else about what was going to happen to the goat.

The deputies were looking for opportunities to be total jerks. Let's hope a state senator has enough clout to get them off the force.

[spike jones]

46. Many years ago an enviromental group won the bid to clear-cut trees in a PNW National Forest, then

did not cut them. I believe after that the Forest Service changed rules that winning bid must cut the trees.

[Ilsa]

47. Did the fucking deputies learn a lesson?

I mean, really, to drive 500 miles for the animal that was worth what?

[Iggo]

61. They got to act tough while scaring a little girl.

So yeah, totally worth it.

[Mr.Bill]

48. For those who don't know California local politics,

Shasta County could probably be described as to the far right beyond the reddest areas of Texas.

[PufPuf23]

69. Shasta County is over the edge.

Check out the link to a newscafe.com.

https://anewscafe.com/

MAGA has taken over the BOS and is focused on destruction.

Heroic liberal site documents the happenings.

[not fooled]

73. Yeah, Shasta County is nuts

I was considering moving there if I don't leave the U.S. but after learning about wingnut local politics, no way. The pukes infiltrating county government are deranged.

[maspaha]

49. Rules, Amendments, I'm done for the week, y'all!

I selfishly just can’t deal with any more devastated or dead nine year old children at hands of self-righteous, arrogant adults.

Between “she needs to learn a lesson” and imaginary “2nd Amendment” rights (?), I’m done, stick a fork in me! I’m taking the rest of the weekend off of the “news”. Even the joy of a Trump indictment and possibility of leaked juicy details will not draw me back!

Love Y’all like bacon tho!

[Oneironaut]

50. Sick fucks

[hunter]

52. That's the rules on my planet too.

Any humans we collect must be eaten.

It's well known across the galaxy that humans are a highly invasive species.



https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_Serve_Man_%28The_Twilight_Zone%29

I'm not being flippant here.

The sad thing about this story is that the "hard lessons of life" that used to be survival skills are entirely irrelevant here in the 21st century. Rules like this serve no purpose in a world where nobody has to kill animals to survive.

I suspect most people wouldn't eat animals if they had to kill the animals themselves and turn them into dinner. I can do that, much as my great grandmothers did, but I don't, not here in the 21st century.

My dad's family were dairy farmers, my mom's family were ranchers. I'm not a rancher or dairy farmer because my grandparents did not like taking care of cows and ran off to the cities.

Cows are a handy way of turning grass on the hillsides into protein humans can eat.

These days we have more cows than the hillsides can support so we have to grow food for them on land that could otherwise be used to feed people directly.

Healthy satisfying vegan diets have never been easier than they are now. Hell, if I want junk food I can buy veggie burgers at our local fast food places, including McDonalds. That fake meat is pretty tasty.

Our "consevatives" hate this modern world. It's very similar to their hatred of realistic sex education and birth control. They will protect the cruel irrelevant teachings of their disgusting religions and ideologies at any cost. They'll treat dangerous and unwanted pregnancies as cruel "gifts" from their cruel gods.

I'm not any kind of militant vegan, but I don't serve meat in our home except to people who expect it, all in hopes of reducing my own environmental footprint.

My wife and I have dogs. I don't expect dogs to be vegetarians. I suspect most of the kibble we feed them is made from "retired" egg laying hens.

[liberalla]

55. Once the new owner Is allowing the goat to live, how can the deputies kill his property?

If the animal MUST be killed, then the new owner (who purchased the goat) is also "breaking" the rules to allow the animal to live.

Do the deputies also chase down animals if the owner doesn't immediately slaughter them?

[liberal_mama]

58. These are sick & deranged people who would go through all that trouble to kill a little girl's goat

Between Covid spreaders, anti-maskers, and stories like this, I have little faith in humanity now. I sure hope the asteroid comes soon and puts an end to this shit show.

[summer_in_TX]

59. Authoritarian abuse of power.

I hope their evil brings them great blowback and that the Shasta County Fair's notoriety makes them shunned.

[Iggo]

60. Cops. That's who they are. That's what they do.

[XanaDUer2]

62. Why couldn't the politician given her the goat?

I'm confused. If he bought it, why not give the goat to her? That would look very good for his campaign.

[Mosby]

63. Maybe because he never had physical possession of the animal

But someone had Cedar sent south to a farm that was protecting him. Until the police came and took him that is.

[druidity33]

67. look at you...

sneering with self-righteousness.

[ripcord]

72. Why did the mother even agree to have her daughter enter the show?

Parents have to sign a contract with the fair for this type of show/auction. All the reasons not to kill the goat should have been taken into consideration long before the fair began, not doing something stupid like stealing the goat back after.

[XanaDUer2]

74. I don't understand this, either

Did the mother not read the contract before she signed it? Did she not understand "slaughter goat" designation? Did she not see the love and bonding starting with the goat? The child lost three grandparents, why would you enter your child in a fair with a "slaughter" goat?

This is the sickest thing I've read in a long time. The politician said he'd be okay with the goat going to a farm. This sicko Melanie Silva needed to teach a 9-yr-old a lesson. Sick, sick, sick. Sending cops to go after a goat like it's on America' Most Wanted?

Wonder what lessons the little girl learned?

[leftyladyfrommo]

75. I remember even as a little kid that loved animals that

i was horrified by that regulation. I still am.

[hamsterjill]

76. I was raised on a ranch in South Texas by a father who was a cowboy

He refused to allow his children to participate in 4-H because he understood the trauma of losing a pet. And an animal that a child has bonded with over months of care and dedication is a PET.

I’m in my mid sixties and I’m grateful for my dad.

[lostnfound]

77. Great perspective. Nt