That goat, Cedar, was ultimately slaughtered after local authorities tracked him down like a fugitive.
Alan Riquelmy / November 1, 2024
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (CN) — A lawsuit accusing Shasta County officials of improperly seizing a 9-year-old girl’s goat ended Friday with a settlement.
Shasta County and its sheriff’s office, along with a lieutenant and two detectives, agreed to settle the infamous viral case of Cedar the goat for $300,000.
Of that total amount, $100,000 is specifically earmarked in the settlement agreement. Attorneys will get $35,000 in fees, while the remaining $65,000 will go into a trust fund for the girl, now 11.
Other defendants, including fair employees and a 4-H volunteer, still remain in the suit.
The legal fight centers around the purported sale of Cedar at a 2022 district fair. That incident drew significant media attention when it happened, as it included accusations of goat theft by law enforcement and featured a California state senator.
Jessica Long, the girl’s mother, argued the family never agreed to sell Cedar. She said her daughter cried in the goat’s pen, saying she didn’t want to sell Cedar and that the Shasta Fair Association had no right to him.
Despite this, one detective from the settlement obtained a warrant to seize Cedar. Two other officers then drove to Sonoma County, where they seized the goat.
“As a result, the young girl who raised Cedar lost him, and Cedar lost his life,” Long wrote in her suit. “Now plaintiffs can never get him back.”
Ryan Gordon, an attorney for Long and her daughter, said in a statement to Courthouse News that no litigation can bring Cedar back.
Nonetheless, “the $300,000 settlement with the county of Shasta and Shasta County Sheriff’s Office is the first step in moving forward,” he added. “We continue to litigate against the California fair entity and related employees, and a 4-H volunteer.”
Attorneys for the defendants couldn’t be reached for comment.
According to Long, her daughter became Cedar’s owner in April 2022, caring for and feeding him daily until around July 2022. The girl, who was enrolled in a local 4-H youth program, ultimately exhibited Cedar at the Shasta District Fair.
While the fair had a junior livestock auction, the Shasta Fair Association didn’t own the goat. Long wrote that at most, the association should receive 7% of the payment that a 4-H exhibitor gets for selling an animal.
Regardless, Long said such no sale ever occurred, as the family acted to stop their participation in the livestock auction. The fair association claimed fair rules didn’t allow for that, though no such legal rules exist.
State Senator Brian Dahle, a Bieber Republican whose district includes Shasta County, made the high bid for Cedar at $902 through a representative.
“After the auction, [the girl] would not leave Cedar’s side,” Long wrote. “[She] loved Cedar and the thought of him going to slaughter was something she could not bear. While sobbing in his pen beside him, [she] communicated to her mother she didn’t want Cedar to go to slaughter.”
Long, wanting to avoid conflict, told the fair association she’d pay for any losses. Long also worried about fallout from the decision and opted to take Cedar to a Sonoma County farm, giving her time to fix any community rifts.
Fearing legal threats from the fair association’s livestock manager, Long again offered to pay for any losses. She also contacted Dahle’s office. His representatives told her he wouldn’t hinder her efforts to save Cedar.
In spite of that, the sheriff’s office began an investigation, leading to a warrant to seize Cedar from a Napa County business.
The lieutenant and a detective then drove at least 500 miles to seize Cedar — but the goat had never been there. They later found Cedar at the Sonoma County farm and seized the goat, even though, as Long noted, they had no warrant for that location.
Exposing the Big Game 
World class pricks all around….hope her settlement gets larger.