When Jessica Long learned the whereabouts of her 9-year-old daughter’s beloved goat, it was too late to save him.
Sheriff’s deputies seized the goat, named Cedar, in 2022 while he was staying on a farm in Northern California. They delivered it to Shasta County Fair officials, who claimed the county owned the goat, according to court documents.
Cedar was then shot, according to the documents, and the family sued county authorities.
Now, Shasta County and its Sheriff’s Office will pay $300,000 to Long’s family as part of a settlement agreement. The agreement, approved Friday by a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California, is “the Long family’s first step forward,” said Vanessa Shakib, the family’s attorney.
“We can’t get justice here because Cedar will never be able to come home,” Shakib, co-founder of the nonprofit Advancing Law for Animals, which specializes in animal law, told the Washington Post. “But what’s important is that we make sure this never happens to another family again and that government officials understand that animals are not property. They are family members.
Christopher Pisano, an attorney representing Shasta County and its sheriff’s office, said Cedar’s theft was reported to law enforcement before two deputies picked him up.
“They did nothing but enforce the law,” said Pisano, who added that his clients agreed to a settlement because they didn’t want to go to court. He said he did not know who contacted law enforcement or what happened after the seizure.
Long purchased a white and brown Boer goat for her daughter, identified as EL in court documents, in April 2022. The daughter named him Cedar, and she fed and walked him for nearly three months “as a pet.” company,” according to the Longs’ complaint for 2022.
In June 2022, Long and his daughter displayed Cedar to potential buyers at the Shasta District Fair junior livestock auction in Anderson, California, according to the lawsuit. On the last day of the auction, the girl decided that she could not bear to lose Cedar. But the fair representatives said the removal was prohibited, according to the lawsuit.
Cedar, approximately 7 months old, was sold at auction for $902. Fearing that the goat would be slaughtered for its meat, Long’s daughter cried and refused to turn the animal over to fair officials, according to the lawsuit.
Long took her daughter and Cedar home, telling the fair representatives that she would pay for any financial loss caused by her decision, according to the lawsuit. Fearing that her Shasta County neighbors would be upset, Long took Cedar to a farm in Sonoma County, Calif., more than 200 miles away, where she believed Cedar would be safe, according to the lawsuit.
Later in June, a breeder at the fair called Long and asked him to return Cedar, according to the lawsuit. The next day, Long sent a letter to the fair saying that three of her daughter’s grandparents had died in the past year and that she “couldn’t bear the thought” of her also losing Cedar, according to the lawsuit.
Melanie Silva, general manager of the district fair, responded to Long that “making an exception for you will only teach (our) young people that they do not have to follow the rules established for all participants,” according to an email provided to The Post by Long’s attorneys.
The following month, a sheriff’s detective sought a warrant to search a Napa County farm that had posted a plea on Instagram to spare Cedar’s life, after his boss asked him to investigate, according to court documents. A magistrate approved the warrant, the lawsuit says.
Two sheriff’s deputies drove to the farm, about 150 miles south, but Cedar was not there, according to the lawsuit. They continued to another farm, in Petaluma, California, and found Cedar, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit accused deputies of not having a warrant to search the property, but Pisano told the Post they didn’t need one because a farm employee turned Cedar over.
Long and her family were out of town at the time and when she texted the owner of the Petaluma farm later that month, she learned Cedar had been confiscated, according to court documents.
The cedar was felled around late July 2022, according to court documents. Long filed a lawsuit against the sheriff’s office employees the following month, alleging they violated his and his daughter’s rights to due process and their right against unreasonable searches and seizures.
In March 2023, Long added other defendants, including Shasta County and the Shasta District Fair & Event Center, which Long said recovered Cedar after sheriff’s deputies seized it.
Long’s lawsuit against the Shasta District Fair & Event Center is ongoing. The California Attorney General’s Office, which represents the fair, referred interview requests to the California Department of Food and Agriculture, which oversees the fair. The state agency did not respond to a request for comment Monday.
Shakib said she and Long’s family still have questions about Cedar’s final days, such as who asked law enforcement to arrest him, who killed him and where his remains are. .
“This is a terrifying and devastating event that still weighs heavily on the family today,” she said.
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