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9-Year-Old Girl Sues Fair After Her Pet Goat Was Entered into Auction and Slaughtered

A nine-year-old girl from California is suing the state fair after her pet goat was entered into an auction and feared to have been ‘barbecued’.

The girl and her mother, Jessica Long, bought the seven-month-old white Boer named Cedar in April 2022. The girl grew to love the goat, and it was seen as a family pet, according to a lawsuit obtained by The Sacramento Bee. However, in June, Long entered Cedar into the Shasta District Fair’s junior livestock auction to be sold as meat.

However, before the auction began, the Long family changed their mind as the young girl was attached to Cedar, and they tried to withdraw the goat. The fair denied that the family requested Cedar be removed, and Cedar was sold for $902. The family decided to steal the goat back as they felt it was their only choice to save him.

‘It was heartbreaking. 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 wrote in an email to the Shasta District Fair on June 27.

‘I knew when I took it that my next steps were to make it right with the buyer and the fairgrounds. I will pay you back for the goat and any other expenses I caused. I would like to ask for your Support in finding a solution.’

However, the fair’s chief executive officer Melanie Silva said that making an exception for them would only teach the youth that they don’t have to abide by the rules that are set up for the participants. The fair’s chief executive officer Melanie Silva would not have it.

‘Unfortunately, this is out of my hands. You will need to bring the goat back to the Shasta District Fair immediately,’ she wrote.

The fair’s livestock manager BJ Mcfarlane reportedly texted Long, threatening to call law enforcement on her and said that she would face a felony of grand theft if she did not bring back the goat. On July 8, a judge approved a search warrant for Cedar but was not able to find the goat in the location for which they had the search warrant. They then went to a farm in Sonoma County that Long had contacted and found Cedar and took him, although they did not have a search warrant for that site, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit claims that Cedar was handed over to a person at the fair ‘for slaughter’ instead of being held for a court hearing to decide the rightful owner. Although it is not clear what happened to Cedar, the family, and their attorney do not believe he is alive. We hope that justice is found for Cedar and his family.