County to Pay $300K Over Seizure of Girl's Beloved Goat

Officials in Shasta County, California, will pay $300,000 to a family whose pet goat was seized and slaughtered in 2022. Cedar the goat was raised to be sold in a junior livestock auction, but his 9-year-old owner, who viewed the goat as a beloved pet, tried to pull the animal from the sale before bidding began. The Shasta Fair Association refused to allow it, so the family took Cedar home after he was sold and said they would pay for any losses their decision caused, according to a lawsuit alleging violations of the rights to due process and unreasonable search and seizure. The suit says sheriff's deputies subsequently drove 500 miles to seize Cedar from a farm in Sonoma County. He was later killed.

Shasta County fair officials claimed the goat belonged to the county, court documents state, per the Washington Post. Christopher Pisano, an attorney representing the county and sheriff's office, says his clients "did nothing other than enforce the law" but "agreed to a settlement because they didn't want to go to trial." They are now to pay $200,000 to the family and $100,000 to the girl identified as EL, according to the settlement approved by a judge on Friday. Of that latter sum, $65,000 will be put in a trust for the girl, while $35,000 will cover her attorney fees, reports SFGate.

"We can't get justice here because Cedar can never come home," family attorney Vanessa Shakib, co-founder of the nonprofit Advancing Law for Animals, tells the Post. "But what's important is that we make sure that this never happens again to another family and that government officials understand that animals are not property. They are family members." The suit noted the girl had lost three grandparents in the year before the auction and "couldn't bear the thought" of losing Cedar as well.

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The family's case against the Shasta District Fair and Event Center, represented by the California Attorney General's Office, continues. The fair allegedly picked up Cedar after he was seized from the farm, but the Post cites Shakib as saying the family still wants answers about Cedar's final days, including who asked the sheriff's department to seize him, who killed him, and where his remains are located. (More goats stories.)