Family sued after police forced goats to be auctioned for meat
REDDING, California – A Northern California family is filing a federal lawsuit against the sheriff for capturing a young girl’s pet goat, Cedar, that was later slaughtered at a local auction.
Shasta County engineer Jessica Long and her young daughter filed a lawsuit against Shasta County Sheriff’s Office officials, Lieutenant Jerry Fernandez, and detectives Jacob Duncan and Jeremy Ashbee.
In the lawsuit, filed Wednesday in the Eastern District Court of the Sacramento Division of California, Long and her daughter accused two deputies of driving to Sonoma County to arrest the pet before the fight. Price Cattle Youth Shasta.
The lawsuit states that Cedar belongs to Long’s daughter, who is under 10 years old and entered the goat in a youth auction as part of a 4-H Club operation.
Initially, Long said, neither she nor her daughter realized that Cedar had been involved in a “final auction” – where the animal was killed after the auction ended, with the pieces of meat going to transferred to the highest bidder.
According to the lawsuit, Senator Brian Dahle of California placed the highest bid of $902.
But Long’s daughter “ends her relationship with Cedar and doesn’t want him killed,” said Ryan Gordon, Long’s attorney, who filed the lawsuit and represents Advance Law for Animals.
Joining 4-H is something Long says her daughter “can do with friends and she loves animals.”
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The goat was three or four months old when it was received by the family and six or seven months old when it entered a youth auction at the end of June at the Shasta District Fairgrounds in Anderson, California.
The girl displayed Cedar at the Shasta County Fair during the grassroots pet auction on June 24.
“She wanted to get Cedar out of there that day and was told she couldn’t,” says Gordon. Fair officials said terminating their involvement was not authorized, although the family has repeatedly offered to pay for any loss or damage, Gordon said.
“We were told to leave them in the barn last night and a truck would come and pick up all the animals,” Long said. It’s like 530 animals, so one truck will take them all. I don’t know what the end will be. “
Instead, Long and his daughter left the fairground with Cedar.
Anticipating their decision not to give up Cedar could cause controversy in their “agricultural community,” the lawsuit said, adding that Long took Cedar to a farm in Sonoma County on June 26.
That same day, the lawsuit said, Shasta Equity Association livestock manager BJ Macfarlane called Long “and demanded that Cedar be returned” or Long would be charged with grand theft, a felony. crime under California law.
Calls for comment to Shasta County Fairgrounds officials and Dahle’s office were not returned.
In the lawsuit, Long said she reached out to Dahle to explain the situation and ask him to give up all rights to the goat.
In response, the lawsuit states, “Representatives for Senator Dahle informed her that he would not resist her efforts to save Cedar from slaughter.”
On June 27, Long made a written offer of payment to settle the matter regarding the goat, a request that the Shasta Equity Association denied, the lawsuit said.
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Instead of filing a civil lawsuit, the lawsuit states, “Shasta and Macfarlane Equity Associations have chosen to avoid the courts and employ aggressive tactics related to law enforcement.”
The court issued a search warrant and seized the goat on July 8.
That same day, two of the three officers named in the lawsuit – Fernandez and Duncan – drove to the Sonoma ranch and arrested Cedar, the lawsuit said.
Officers then delivered Cedar to the Shasta County fairgrounds to a “third party” that the sheriff’s office considers Cedar’s owner, the lawsuit says. Those unidentified third parties either killed Cedar or sent him to be slaughtered, according to the lawsuit.
“The reason why that’s important is because the police can’t decide who’s the owner,” Gordon said. “They’re investigating. That’s the[clause]of the proceedings.”
Long called what happened “a sad and shocking surprise. If a judge orders me to bring him back, I will bring him back. We never get to that point.”
As for her daughter, Ms. Long said, “she likes goats and will one day like a goat or a horse, or both.”
When asked for comment, Shasta County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Tim Mapes said via email, “due to pending litigation, we are unable to comment.”
The lawsuit asks for actual and punitive damages, along with attorneys’ fees.
Follow Michele Chandler on Twitter at @MChandler_RS.