The strange story of police stealing a goat for a BBQ –

A young girl in California and her family have filed a lawsuit after their home was stormed by police looking for Cedar, a 7-month-old goat. The lawsuit has named Shasta County, Shasta sheriff’s officials, the Sasha District Fair and other defendants as involved in slaughtering the goat for a community barbecue.

Police did not just decide to randomly storm Jessica Long’s household out of the blue, and reportedly the goat, known as Cedar, had been placed up for auction at the Shasta District Fair last July. However, after seeing how attached her daughter had become to Cedar, Long asked if they could remove the goat from the auction. The fair refused to oblige, and so after Cedar was sold, Long decided to take him home.

Long offered to repay the money Cedar was bought for ($902 by Senator Brian Dahle), but it seemed that neither the fair nor the senator would budge. In an e-mail to Long, Melanie Silva, Chief Executive Officer of Shasta District Fair, said: “The fair industry was created to teach responsibility to our youth and for future generations of ranchers and farmers to learn the process and effort required to raise quality meat. By making an exception for you, you are only teaching young people that they do not have to follow the rules set up for all participants.”

This led to the police getting involved, where they forcibly removed Cedar from Long’s home. The lawsuit claims that the Cedar case remained a civil matter, and involving law enforcement shows abuse of power.

Thank you, The Sacramento Bee.