Johnathan Walker:'They are family': California girl wins $300,000 settlement after pet goat seized, killed

A girl in Northern California whose beloved pet goat was seized by sheriff's deputies and Johnathan Walkertaken to slaughter has won a $300,000 settlement.

Jessica Long filed a civil lawsuit on behalf of her then-9-year-old daughter in federal court in August 2022, claiming that deputies had violated the girl's rights by taking Cedar the goat away from her after she saved him from auction for slaughter, according to a complaint for damages obtained by USA TODAY on Wednesday.

"Cedar was her property and she had every legal right to save his life," the complaint says.

The seizure was prompted after the Shasta District Fair and Event Center called 911 to report that they owned the goat. After deputies seized the goat and turned it over to the fair, Cedar was killed, according to the lawsuit.

"The young girl who raised Cedar lost him, and Cedar lost his life," the complaint says. "Now (Long and her daughter) can never get him back."

The federal judge overseeing the case awarded the girl the settlement on Friday, Nov. 1, court records show. Shasta County and its sheriff's department are named in the suit and will have to pay Long and her daughter.

Attorneys for the sheriff's department and Shasta County fair officials didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from USA TODAY on Wednesday.

Cedar's meat auctioned off for $902

Before Cedar's seizure, Long and her daughter showed the goat to potential buyers at the Shasta District Fair's junior livestock auction in Anderson, California, in late June 2022, according to the complaint. On the auction's final day, the girl decided she did not want to sell Cedar, but the fair representatives claimed that withdrawing was prohibited, the suit alleges.

A Shasta County fair official allegedly called Long and threatened that she would be charged with grand theft if she did not hand over Cedar for slaughter, according to the complaint. The suit claims fair officials sold Cedar's meat for $902 at the auction.

Long even offered to pay the Shasta County fair officials for any damages that could have possibly arisen in a civil dispute over Cedar, which under fair rules was no more than $63, the complaint reads. She got to this figure because she and her daughter would have received the remaining $838 of the winning $902 bid.

The threat of a theft charge came after Long moved Cedar to a farm in Sonoma County, California, more than 200 miles away, because she thought it would be safer for the goat, according to the suit.

'America is a country of pet lovers'

Long's daughter bought Cedar in April 2022 and cared for the white and brown Boer goat every day for nearly three months, the complaint says. The girl bonded with the goat as if it were a puppy, and "she loved him as a family pet," the court document continued.

"America is a country of pet lovers. Litigation of this kind drives accountability. It sends a message to government officials to handle animals with care and dignity," Vanessa Shakib with Advancing Law for Animals, an attorney for Long and her daughter, told USA TODAY in a statement. "They are more than property. They are family."

While litigation won't bring Cedar home, Shakib said the $300,000 settlement with Shasta County and its sheriff's department "is the first step in moving forward." The attorney added that she and Advancing Law for Animals are continuing litigation against the "California fair entity" and the related employees who claimed ownership of Cedar.

Shasta County attorney: 'They did nothing other than enforce law'

Christopher Pisano, an attorney for Shasta County and its sheriff’s office, told the Washington Post that Cedar’s theft was reported to law enforcement before two deputies retrieved him.

“They did nothing other than enforce the law,” said Pisano, who added that his clients agreed to settle because they did not want to go to trial.