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California girl receives $300,000 settlement after goat was seized and killed

Jessica Long and her 11-year-old daughter won $300,000 in compensation after Shasta County sheriff's deputies “unlawfully seized” their pet goat named Cedar and handed it over for slaughter in 2022.

A Northern California girl whose beloved pet goat was confiscated by sheriff's officials and sent to slaughter has received $300,000 in compensation.

Jessica Long filed a civil lawsuit in federal court in August 2022 on behalf of her then-9-year-old daughter, claiming that officials violated the girl's rights by taking Cedar the goat from her after she slaughtered him before slaughtering him before an auction had saved. This is according to a damages claim obtained by USA TODAY on Wednesday.

“Cedar was her property and she had every legal right to save his life,” the complaint states.

The seizure came after the Shasta District Fair and Event Center called 911 to say the goat belonged to them. After officials confiscated the goat and turned it over to the fair, Cedar was killed, the lawsuit says.

“The young girl who raised Cedar lost him, and Cedar lost his life,” the complaint states. “Now (Long and her daughter) can never get him back.”

The federal judge overseeing the case granted the girl the settlement on Friday, Nov. 1, court records show. Shasta County and its sheriff's department are named in the lawsuit and must pay Long and her daughter.

Attorneys for the sheriff's department and Shasta County fair officials did not immediately respond to USA TODAY's requests for comment Wednesday.

Cedar meat sold for $902

Before Cedar's seizure, Long and her daughter showed the goat to potential buyers at the Shasta District Fair's junior livestock auction in Anderson, California, in late June 2022, the complaint says. On the last day of the auction, the girl decided she did not want to sell Cedar, but fair officials claimed that withdrawal was prohibited, the lawsuit says.

A Shasta County fair officer allegedly called Long and threatened that she would be charged with grand larceny if she did not hand over Cedar for slaughter, the complaint states. The lawsuit alleges that fair officials sold cedar meat at the auction for $902.

Long even offered to reimburse Shasta County fair officials for any damages that may have arisen in a civil dispute over Cedar, which under fair rules did not exceed $63, the lawsuit says. She came to that number because she and her daughter would have received the remaining $838 of the winning bid of $902.

The threat of theft charges came after Long moved Cedar to a farm more than 200 miles away in Sonoma County, California, because she believed it would be safer for the goat, the lawsuit says.

“America is a country of animal lovers”

Long's daughter purchased Cedar in April 2022 and cared for the white and brown Boer goat every day for nearly three months, the complaint says. The girl bonded with the goat as if it were a puppy and “loved him as a family pet,” the court document continued.

“America is a country of animal lovers. Litigation of this type promotes accountability. They send a message to government officials to treat animals with care and dignity,” Vanessa Shakib of Advancing Law for Animals, an attorney for Long and her daughter, told USA TODAY in a statement. “They are more than property. They are family.”

While litigation won't bring Cedar home, Shakib said the $300,000 settlement with Shasta County and the sheriff's department is “the first step forward.” The attorney added that she and Advancing Law for Animals are continuing the litigation against the California Fair Entity and its associates who claimed ownership of Cedar.

Shasta County attorney: 'You did nothing but enforce the law'

Christopher Pisano, an attorney for Shasta County and its sheriff's office, told The Washington Post that Cedar's theft was reported to law enforcement before two officers retrieved it.

“They did nothing but enforce the law,” Pisano said, adding that his clients agreed to a plea deal because they didn’t want to go to trial.

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