Shasta County to pay $300,000 after deputies seize girl’s goat for slaughter

A 9-year-old girl who fell in love with the goat she raised for the Shasta County Fair was heartbroken when deputies carrying a search warrant seized the furry animal and took it to slaughter.

Two years after the scandal broke, Shasta County agreed to pay the girl’s family $300,000 to settle a legal dispute over a floppy-eared brown-and-white goat named Cedar.

The young girl had raised goats for the 2022 fair as part of a program aimed at teaching young people how to care for farm animals. But when it came time to sell Cedar and deliver it to slaughter, Jessica Long’s 9-year-old daughter couldn’t do it.

Long picked up the goat from the fair, offered to pay the expenses, and begged fair officials to let her daughter stay with Cedar. Instead, the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office deployed deputies with a search warrant and traveled hundreds of miles across Northern California to find and retrieve the goat from Billy’s Mini Farm, where Long had taken it until the dispute was resolved.

It is unclear who contacted the sheriff’s office and directed it to get involved.

The case caused an uproar, and in a federal lawsuit, Long and her daughter alleged that deputies wrongfully executed a search warrant, seized Cedar, and turned the animal over to fair authorities. Lawyers also accused county and fair officials of using law enforcement to intervene in what they said was a legal dispute over who owned the goat.

Cedar, purchased for $902 at the county fair, was slaughtered, but it remains unclear who did it.

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Dale A. Drozd approved the settlement requiring Shasta County to pay Long and her daughter $300,000 to resolve the federal case out of court.

“Unfortunately, this case cannot bring Cedar home,” said Vanessa Shakib, an attorney representing Long. “But the $300,000 agreement with Shasta County and the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office is a first step forward.”

The agreement brings a partial end to a two-year contentious lawsuit between Long and Shasta County and fair officials.

Shakib said that over the past two years, fair and regional officials have employed “obstructive reconnaissance tactics” to avoid answering important questions about what happened to the goat and what role authorities played in seizing and destroying the animal.

“Even after many years, there are still several unanswered questions in this case,” he said.

After two years of reviewing texts, emails, phone records and statements, Shakib said county and fair officials have yet to provide a clear explanation. Who murdered Sedir?what happened to his meat and who involved the sheriff’s deputies in this dispute.

Text messages revealed during the federal lawsuit show fair officials wanted to keep secret what happened to Cedar and who was involved.

“Kathy said it was okay but no one needs to know that,” BJ Macfarlane, livestock director for the Shasta Fair Assn., wrote in a July 22, 2022 text message to Shasta Fair Chief Executive Officer Melanie Silva. In his message, he referenced Kathie Muse, a 4-H program volunteer and county barbecue organizer. “Me and Kathy are just one. “If anyone asks, he was killed and donated to a non-profit organization.”

“We are a non-profit organization ,” Silva replied.

Long’s attorneys argued in court that finding out who killed Cedar and who contacted law enforcement was important to their case. Long and his attorney reached out to the goat before it was slaughtered, saying they had argued with the sheriff, fair and county officials over ownership of the goat.

Still, Shakib said, someone decided to order Cedar’s capture and death even though he knew a case would be filed.

County officials deny any wrongdoing.

“The county has done nothing wrong, but we recognize the risk and cost of going to trial and that is why we have agreed to settle the case,” Shasta County attorney Christopher Pisano said in an email. “We are happy to move on and put this case behind us.”

A Shasta County spokesman did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Silva, who currently serves as CEO of the Shasta County Fair, also did not respond to a request for comment.

Despite a partial settlement with Shasta County and the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office, the case is still ongoing. Long and her daughter still have allegations against Shasta County Fair employees and a 4-H volunteer.

Shakib said lawyers are still reviewing findings, including phone records, to find out what happened to Cedar.