Adults led a pet goat to slaughter to teach girl a lesson. All she learned was cruelty | Opinion

It had all the makings of a Hallmark movie, this tale of the girl and the goat.

Instead, it’s made the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office and the Shasta District Fair look like Cruella de Vil after they broke a young girl’s heart by seizing Cedar the goat, who was then likely slaughtered and served up at a community barbecue.

The only authority figure who comes off looking decent in this whole affair is Republican state Sen. Brian Dahle, who bought the goat at auction and then agreed to let it live, though the fair essentially overruled him.

In case you haven’t heard the story, here’s a synopsis: Last spring, a then-9-year-old girl decided raise a baby goat to sell at auction at the Shasta County Fair in Anderson.

The girl bonded with Cedar — she regarded it as a pet — and couldn’t bear the thought of the goat being hauled off to slaughter.

So, the family undertook a rescue mission. To prevent the goat from being hauled away with the other animals destined for slaughter, they transported Cedar to a farm in Sonoma County that leases out goats for vegetation control. Then they tried to make amends with fair officials by offering to cover all expenses. They also reached out to Dahle’s office to secure his OK to the new plan.

But instead of trying to work this out amicably — and keeping it as quiet as possible — the fair thought nothing of traumatizing a child and her mother, Jessica Long, by treating them as thieves and sending the Sheriff’s Office after Cedar.

They tried to excuse their cruelty by using self-righteous, we-need-to-teach-them-a-lesson rhetoric:

“Making an exception for you will only teach (our) youth that they do not have to abide by the rules that are set up for all participants,” the fair’s chief executive officer wrote in an email sent to Long that was as cold-hearted as it was sanctimonious.

The fair district was not moved by Long’s explanation of family circumstances: “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.

Too bad, the supposed adults said. Rules are rules.

Deputies finally get their goat

Instead of treating this issue as a civil matter, the fair played hardball, threatening criminal charges against Long and then siccing the Sheriff’s Office on Cedar.

Deputies traveled more than 500 miles — at taxpayers’ expense — but finally got their goat.

While it isn’t 100% certain that Cedar was slaughtered — neither the Shasta District Fair nor the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office is commenting on the case — Long’s attorneys believe the goat was killed.

In other words, there was no happy ending for Cedar or one heartbroken little girl.

That was not the final chapter, however.

Long filed a federal lawsuit against Shasta County, the Sheriff’s Office and the Shasta Fair District, alleging unreasonable search and seizure and violation of due process.

The lawsuit, which was filed in September and amended in March, has put a spotlight on the case, generating coverage throughout California and beyond.

That’s exactly what fair officials had hoped to avoid, proving they are both thoughtless and naive.

Early on, they fretted that the situation had turned into a “negative experience for the fairgrounds,” which would have been a blaring alarm for most civic-minded operations.

Yet instead of dealing with the situation humanely and reconsidering their edict, they doubled down, taking the hardest line possible — which only amplified the publicity.

Policy of ‘no exceptions’

There are indeed arguments on both sides — as many social media users have pointed out.

A fair brochure makes it clear that animals are sold at auction to be used as meat — “no exceptions” — and if the fair were to budge, that could set a precedent.

Show leniency in this case, and pretty soon a whole slew of youngsters will want to back out, right?

Not exactly.

Raising animals is a money-making proposition for young 4-H and FFA members, and for the most part, they are aware of and prepared for the consequences.

That wasn’t the case for Cedar’s young owner.

It’s hard to blame her or her mother, who explained that the family wasn’t familiar with goats.

“We’ve never had a goat,” Long told the Redding Record Searchlight back in September. “I didn’t know they’re kind of ... somewhere in between a dog and a horse. I’ve never gotten to know one before.”

Understood.

Seriously, who can look at Cedar’s trusting eyes, those floppy brown ears and darling little nose and not feel at least a twinge of regret about sending the goat to the slaughterhouse?

As for teaching children to “abide by the rules,” give us a break.

What adult hasn’t tried to talk their way out of a traffic ticket or wheedle out of a late fee added to a bill?

And there’s often good reason to do so. There may be extenuating circumstances that justify bending the rules. Life is full of gray areas, and reasonable people grow to understand this.

Besides, why does the fair get the final say-so?

It was acting as the intermediary between buyer and seller. As long as the buyer, Sen. Dahle, was willing to go along with a new plan, why should the fair care? If anything, it should be celebrating the fact that animals have multiple uses.

In this case, Cedar would have joined a goat herd that provides fire protection through vegetation management — a much higher purpose than filling bellies at a barbecue.

Unfortunately, it’s too late for Cedar.

But it’s not too late for the Shasta District Fair and the Shasta Sheriff’s Office to admit the situation could have been handled differently and to put policies in place to prevent it from happening again — starting with not treating 9-year-old girls as criminals if they get attached to a goat.

Indeed, there is a lesson to be learned here — for the adults, not the child.