That goat, Cedar, was ultimately slaughtered after local authorities tracked him down like a fugitive.

Alan Riquelmy / November 1, 2024

California county pays up after illegally seizing child’s pet goat

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.

LandTrust explores the intersection of political leanings and hunting participation across the U.S.

Posted Monday, November 4, 2024 5:47 pm

Nic DeCastro

LandTrust

The intersection of political leanings and hunting participation presents an interesting paradox in American culture. Based on research from the land-sharing marketplace for outdoor recreation, LandTrust, this article explores the top 10 liberal and liberal-leaning states with the highest number of hunters per capita and the top 10 conservative and conservative-leaning states with the least number of hunters per capita, challenging common stereotypes about hunting and political affiliations.

Top 10 Traditionally Liberal States with Highest Per Capita Licensed Hunters

1. Maine: Approximately 15.6% of the population (213,686 hunters / estimated 1,370,000 population)
2. Wisconsin: Approximately 11.3% of the population (664,738 hunters / estimated 5,900,000 population)
3. Vermont: Approximately 9.7% of the population (60,719 hunters / estimated 625,000 population)
4. Minnesota: Approximately 9.5% of the population (542,085 hunters / estimated 5,700,000 population)
5. Oregon: Approximately 7.8% of the population (333,196 hunters / estimated 4,250,000 population)
6. Colorado: Approximately 6.7% of the population (393,066 hunters / estimated 5,850,000 population)
7. Michigan: Approximately 6.3% of the population (634,627 hunters / estimated 10,050,000 population)
8. New Hampshire: Approximately 4.4% of the population (60,323 hunters / estimated 1,380,000 population)
9. New York: Approximately 2.8% of the population (553,475 hunters / estimated 19,800,000 population)
10. Washington: Approximately 2.2% of the population (170,975 hunters / estimated 7,800,000 population)

Top 10 Traditionally Conservative States with Lowest Per Capita Licensed Hunters

1. Tennessee: Approximately 12.1% of the population (844,172 hunters / estimated 7,000,000 population)
2. Alabama: Approximately 9.7% of the population (486,674 hunters / estimated 5,050,000 population)
3. Utah: Approximately 8.0% of the population (267,238 hunters / estimated 3,350,000 population)
4. Georgia: Approximately 7.5% of the population (819,893 hunters / estimated 10,900,000 population)
5. North Carolina: Approximately 6.1% of the population (650,361 hunters / estimated 10,700,000 population)
6. South Carolina: Approximately 4.1% of the population (215,340 hunters / estimated 5,250,000 population)
7. Arizona: Approximately 3.9% of the population (287,033 hunters / estimated 7,400,000 population)
8. Texas: Approximately 3.8% of the population (1,132,186 hunters / estimated 30,000,000 population)
9. Nevada: Approximately 3.4% of the population (107,978 hunters / estimated 3,200,000 population)
10. Florida: Approximately 1.0% of the population (219,074 hunters / estimated 22,000,000 population)

State With Highest Per Capita Licensed Hunters

1. South Dakota: Approximately 25.3% of the population (227,312 hunters / estimated 900,000 population)

State With Lowest Per Capita Licensed Hunters

1. California: Approximately 0.7% of the population (260,359 hunters / estimated 39,500,000 population)

Analysis of Per Capita Hunter Distribution

The per capita analysis reveals a significantly different picture compared to the raw numbers, highlighting the importance of considering population size when examining hunting participation rates across states.

Liberal States With High Per Capita Hunting Rates

1. Rural tradition in liberal states: Vermont and Maine, both known for their liberal politics, top the list with the highest percentage of their population holding hunting licenses. This underscores the strong rural traditions and connection to the outdoors that persist in these states despite their overall liberal leanings.
2. Midwest representation: Minnesota and Wisconsin, often considered swing states with liberal tendencies, show very high per capita hunting rates. This reflects the deep-rooted hunting culture in the Midwest, which coexists with progressive political views.
3. Outdoor recreation culture: States like Oregon and Colorado, known for their liberal politics and strong outdoor recreation cultures, also show high per capita hunting rates. This suggests that hunting is often part of a broader engagement with outdoor activities in these states.

Conservative States With Low Per Capita Hunting Rates

1. Urban and suburban influence: Florida, Nevada, and Arizona, despite being conservative-leaning, have relatively low per capita hunting rates. This could be attributed to their large urban and suburban populations, where hunting is less common.
2. Population growth and changing demographics: States like Texas and Georgia, while traditionally conservative, have experienced significant population growth and demographic shifts. The influx of new residents, often to urban areas, may dilute the overall hunting participation rate.
3. Climate and geography: Some conservative states with low per capita hunting rates, such as Florida and Arizona, have climates and geographies that may be less conducive to traditional hunting practices.

Implications of the Per Capita Analysis

1. Cultural complexity: The per capita data reinforces the idea that hunting culture is not strictly aligned with political ideology. Liberal states like Vermont and Maine consider hunting a significant part of their culture, while some conservative states show lower participation rates.
2. Urban-rural divide: The analysis highlights the urban-rural divide within states. Even in conservative states with low overall rates, rural areas likely have higher participation in hunting.
3. Policy considerations: Policymakers in both liberal and conservative states need to consider the significant portion of the population engaged in hunting when crafting legislation related to wildlife management, gun rights, and land use.
4. Economic impact: States with high per capita hunting rates, regardless of political leaning, may have economies that are more significantly impacted by hunting-related tourism and industries.
5. Conservation efforts: The widespread participation in hunting across political lines suggests potential for bipartisan support for conservation efforts, as hunters often have a vested interest in maintaining healthy ecosystems.

Conclusion

The per capita analysis of licensed hunters across states challenges simplistic narratives about the relationship between political ideology and hunting culture. It reveals that factors such as rural traditions, geography, and overall outdoor recreation culture play significant roles in determining hunting participation rates.

This nuanced picture emphasizes the need for a more sophisticated understanding of American cultural practices and their relationship to political ideologies. It suggests that common ground on issues related to land use, conservation, and outdoor recreation may be found across the political spectrum, potentially offering opportunities for dialogue and cooperation in an often divided political landscape.

Ultimately, this analysis reinforces the complexity of American cultural identity and the danger of making broad generalizations based on political affiliations alone. It invites a deeper exploration of the diverse factors that shape regional traditions and practices, encouraging a more nuanced approach to understanding the intersection of culture, politics, and outdoor activities in the United States.

Sad end to search for missing hunter as 25-year-old’s body found, SC coroner says

6 young duck hunters rescued from Leech Lake after boat capsizes

Jo Barnes

Sat 2 November 2024 at 10:00 pm GMT-7·2-min read

https://uk.news.yahoo.com/film-life-animal-ethics-pioneer-050000657.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAFy46hQ9sICJ7E34Qrs435Akf8ztUT5x3OO_l0BU2Ix__bTHt_zv85kKSxL5WmdPtgA4BqHhlxaPqjkArS8uI6lcDfW-9Shb54o9F8cFEvi7MpQpZOeCvn7icNUmX1JeqK9tDc1p-lNgCoGeiVpfik8M35ZLO2i3liwVADmNUg73

A film about the life of animal ethics pioneer Professor Andrew Linzey is set to be shown at one of the most prestigious film festivals in the world – the St Louis International Film Festival.
 
‘The Animal Thing’ charts the struggles of animal theologian Andrew Linzey, as explored by his filmmaker son.

Prof Linzey founded the Oxford Centre for Animal Ethics, and was co-creator of the centre’s Annual Oxford Animal Ethics Summer School. He is author and editor of more than 40 books.
 
Today, Prof Linzey considers himself a failure. But despite the price he has paid for confronting the cruelty of animal exploitation, he has also had an enormous and, until now, largely unheralded impact on the modern animal movement, which is why ‘The Animal Thing’ is seen as such an important film.

The film. ‘The Animal Thing’ will be shown at The Public Library venue in St Louis on November 9.

The director Adam Linzey, and producer Jesse Fox, will be at the event and taking part in a Q&A straight after the screening.

The 33rd Whitaker St Louis International Film Festival takes place from November 7 to 17.

It will feature 271 films from more than 30 countries.

The film’s director Adam Linzey said: “While interviewing Joyce Tischler, a trailblazing animal rights lawyer, she said, ‘Animal people are often broken people’.

“As soon as she said that, I realised she might as well be describing my Dad.

“Most people who know my father, Andrew Linzey, regard his life as a great success. But Dad sees his life rather differently, as a series of failures.

“Now in his 70s and with his health deteriorating, I wanted to finally tell his story: to explore his ideas and hopefully prove that he’s not a failure.”

Man fatally shot while taking part in hunt in Dordogne

Two lost hunters were found in the Pine Canyon area

‘This deer was ginormous.’ Mississippi teen bags 150-class trophy buck

Gaige Zook, 20, is asking a judge to dismiss an involuntary manslaughter charge in the fatal shooting of a 19-year-old. He says the gun fired accidentally while both he and the victim were on a duck hunt.  

https://cowboystatedaily.com/2024/11/04/wyoming-duck-hunter-says-fatal-shooting-was-accident-not-crime/

Clair McFarland

November 04, 20246 min read

A 20-year-old Wyoming man who shot his friend to death in a January duck-hunting incident is asking a judge to dismiss the criminal case against him, saying his handling of the gun was not reckless.

Goshen County District Court Judge Edward Buchanan has scheduled a Nov. 12 hearing to listen to Gaige Zook’s argument.

Zook is a University of Wyoming student from Pinedale with no criminal history, says an Oct. 16 filing by his attorney, Jason Tangeman.

He is charged with one count of involuntary manslaughter in the Jan. 20 death of Maurizio Justiniano, who was 19. The charge is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and is a felony that would remove Zook’s gun and voting rights if he’s convicted.

The charge asserts that Zook handled a shotgun “recklessly,” causing Justiniano’s death on the Platte River Jan. 20, as the pair and a third hunter hunkered in a manmade driftwood blind on the river’s south shore.

Zook saw a duck and tried to shoot it, but his gun misfired, says the case evidentiary affidavit. So he leaned his gun against the fallen tree, and borrowed the third hunter’s 20-gauge shotgun instead. He missed the duck, then went back to his own gun and tried to see what was wrong with it.

The gun fired unintentionally, striking Justiniano in the left side of his abdominal area, says the affidavit.

Zook “failed to properly and safely clear his weapon of malfunctions, and by having it pointed in an unsafe direction when it discharged, directly led to and caused the death of Maurizio Justiniano,” charging documents allege.  

Zook told the third hunter to call 911. Zook also helped emergency medical personnel care for Justiniano as he lay dying, says the affidavit.

State Of Mind

In Wyoming, a person can’t be convicted of murder or manslaughter unless he has some deviation in his state of mind. For first-degree murder, that deviation is “purposely and with premeditated malice.” For second-degree murder it’s “purposely and maliciously.”

And for the involuntary manslaughter charge that Zook faces, that deviation of the mind is “recklessly.”

There was no recklessness here, so there was no manslaughter crime, Tangeman’s motion argues on Zook’s behalf.

The motion characterizes the shooting as a fluke, rather. It quotes Zook’s written statement to investigators, taken in January, which says:

“I gave (the third hunter) back his shotgun, then as I went to grab the gun to inspect it and put the safety on, it fired, hitting Mars.”

Zook also gave investigators a video interview and performed a reenactment of the incident on scene; and these match his written statement, the filing says.

None of these statements provide evidence he consciously allowed the muzzle of his shotgun to point at his friend, Tangeman argued.

The motion says Wyoming case law casts “recklessly” as a state of mind which approaches an intent to do harm. The Wyoming Supreme Court in one 1960 case defined the mindset as a disregard for the safety of others, or behaving with a careless indifference to the consequences of one’s actions, the motion adds.

“The undisputed evidence is that the shotgun misfired and was safely set down with the muzzle pointing straight up,” wrote Tangeman. “Gaige Zook was trying to make the firearm safer in an effort to protect fellow hunters and himself at the time it discharged.”

The Shot Did Kill Justiniano

Yet at some point, the shotgun’s barrel had to be facing Justiniano, Tangeman’s filing acknowledges.

“The question becomes, how did this occur?” he wrote. On the one hand, he says the investigating officer was “speculating” that Zook laid the shotgun down so that it was pointing at Justiniano. But it says that runs contrary to Zook’s matching statements about the incident, and that Zook “does not remember exactly what occurred in the split second the firearm discharged.”

It is likely, argued Tangeman, that Justiniano moved forward and stood up into the barrel’s path at the wrong moment, while Zook was focusing his attention on the faulty gun.

But if the prosecutor’s evidence is “speculative,” then Zook should not have to contest it at trial, the defense attorney argued further.

The Own-Risk Law

Lastly, Tangeman invoked Wyoming’s civil law on sports and recreation, which says people engaging in those activities accept any risk associated with them. That’s a law that governs civil, not criminal law.

But the defender argued that it would not fit, to preclude a hunter for being sued in such a shooting – since hunting is inherently risky – but not to spare him from a criminal conviction, which requires a much heftier proof of evidence than the civil trial from which that law may exempt him.

“Allowing this case to proceed to a jury trial would result in criminalizing any hunting accident,” Tangeman wrote.

The Late Justiniano

Online details about the late Justiniano are sparse.

His brother Nahuel Dadin established a GoFundMe page earlier this year asking for help with Justiniano’s cremation, the transport of his ashes back to his home state of Minnesota, and other expenses.

Dadin did not immediately respond to a request for comment placed via the page, which is no longer accepting donations. He could not be reached for comment through other means.

“I just want to go with my family to give my brother the respect he deserves,” wrote Dadin on the page. “We want to pick up my brother (sic) ashes and bring him home where he belongs.”

Justiniano was not a licensed hunter but wanted to go with the other two hunters that day in January, to learn about duck hunting, says the affidavit.

Goshen County Attorney Eric Boyer did not immediately respond to a Monday voicemail request for comment. 

Different Investigator

Goshen County Coroner Darin Yates told Cowboy State Daily on Monday that after reviewing the forensic pathologist’s account of the autopsy, he deemed Justiniano’s death “accidental.”

It is not unheard-of for a coroner’s manner of death not to match the charges that a prosecutor applies to a case, noted Yates.

That’s because law enforcement and coroners perform their own different investigations of fatal scenes, each looking at different elements of the case.

And coroners do not have the authority to apply or refuse to apply criminal charges, Yates added.

25-year-old hunter killed in tragic accident described as having ‘a heart of gold’