Almost two years after a 9-year-old sobbed and pleaded that her pet goat, Cedar, not be offered and slaughtered for meat, Shasta District Truthful officers nonetheless refuse to reply the query: Who killed the goat?
The destiny of the white and brown goat grew to become worldwide information final yr after the woman’s mother and father filed a federal lawsuit towards the district truthful. Jessica Lengthy’s daughter had raised the brown and white goat to enter into the truthful’s 4-H program, which teaches kids concerning the technique of elevating and caring for livestock to offer meals, as ranchers and farmers do. However earlier than the animal was to be slaughtered, the younger woman begged not to surrender the goat that had turn out to be a beloved pet.
Lengthy surreptitiously retrieved the goat from a barn on the truthful, wrote to truthful officers explaining the dilemma, and supplied to pay for the goat and any bills incurred from her daughter’s change of coronary heart. Shasta District Truthful officers refused and threatened that Lengthy may very well be charged with grand theft as a result of the animal had been offered at public sale. Officers then reached out to the Shasta County Sheriff’s Workplace, which obtained a search warrant and despatched deputies 500 miles throughout Northern California to seek out and seize the goat earlier than the county barbecue.
The struggle between Lengthy and truthful officers has since gone viral, grabbing worldwide headlines. The story of Cedar the goat sparked a California invoice that will permit youngsters to enter animals in county festivals with out the danger of the animals being butchered. It’s sparked debate concerning the 4-H program, whether or not a toddler must be allowed to again out of it, and about officers’ choice to make use of legislation enforcement sources to grab the goat.
However what occurred to Cedar? Who butchered the goat and who ended up with its meat? Most significantly, who gave the inexperienced mild to kill the goat that had became a pet?
Truthful officers on the heart of the dispute have refused to make clear the questions, in line with court docket filings reviewed by The Occasions. Regardless of a yr of subpoenas, depositions and wrangling in federal court docket, key particulars of Cedar the goat’s destiny stay a thriller.
Textual content messages uncovered within the federal lawsuit additionally suggests truthful officers wished to maintain secret what occurred to Cedar.
“Kathy stated okay however nobody must find out about this,” B.J. Macfarlane, livestock supervisor for the Shasta Truthful Assn., wrote on July 22, 2022, to Shasta Truthful Chief Government Melanie Silva. Within the textual content exchanges, he references Kathie Muse, a 4-H volunteer and organizer for the county barbecue. “U me and Kathy are solely ones. It received killed and donated to non revenue if anybody asks.”
“We’re a non revenue 😳🤣🤣🤣,” Silva responded.
When requested by Lengthy’s attorneys in depositions concerning the goat’s destiny, Shasta District Truthful officers have stated they don’t know what occurred, who took Cedar, or who licensed for it to be butchered. As a substitute, three officers on the heart of the authorized struggle have pointed the finger at one another, the sheriff and the Shasta County district lawyer’s workplace, with no clear reply as to what occurred.
In court docket paperwork, Lengthy’s lawyer argue that the query of who killed Cedar the goat is extra than simply semantics. Regulation enforcement and truthful officers had been conscious that Cedar was on the heart of a property dispute between Lengthy and truthful officers whereas the goat was nonetheless alive, but somebody determined to kill the goat regardless of a number of notices {that a} lawsuit was coming to find out who owned the floppy eared creature.
Throughout one deposition, attorneys requested Macfarlane whether or not Cedar had been given to a different bidder within the livestock public sale.
“Sure. Perhaps. I imagine that’s what occurred,” he answered.
“Who would know for positive on that?” Lengthy’s attorneys requested.
“I imagine Melanie [Silva] would,” he stated, in line with court docket filings.
However attorneys would get little readability from that lead.
“The place did it bodily go?” attorneys requested Silva throughout her deposition.
“I don’t know,” she stated.
Who knew, attorneys requested.
“Kathie Muse,” she stated.
“I don’t know what occurred,” Muse informed attorneys, in line with court docket filings.
“My understanding what I used to be informed was he went again to any individual that had an issue with one other goat that had been butchered,” she stated in a deposition, in line with court docket filings. “So we, in flip, changed Cedar with that goat.”
The lawyer then requested who would know what occurred to Cedar.
“In all probability Melanie [Silva],” she answered.
Macfarlane, Silva and Muse didn’t reply to messages searching for remark for this story.
In an e-mail, Ryan Gordon, an lawyer for Advancing Regulation for Animals who represents Lengthy within the federal lawsuit, stated that “essential deposition testimony on this case [is] both inconsistent between defendants, contradicted by telephone information and texts, or later retracted.” He declined to debate the continuing case on the file additional, aside from to say that discovery was persevering with.
Despite the fact that deputies seized Cedar on July 8, 2022, attorneys imagine the goat was alive for weeks afterwards. Macfarlane is believed to have taken the goat from deputies, at the same time as officers tried to resolve what to do subsequent. In the meantime, Lengthy and her attorneys had been already reaching out to county officers looking for Cedar.
“Talked to sheriff and he stated to attend till he talks to DA earlier than we kill goat,” Macfarlane texted Muse on July 11, 2022.
Court docket information point out that on July 28, he texted Silva: “Goat is getting butchered inside the half hour. Lastly.”
He additionally texted Muse: “Bowman is killing goat right now lastly,” referring to a close-by butcher.
In a deposition, Macfarlane testified that Bowman Meats took the goat, and was informed Vista Actual Property was given Cedar’s meat.
However homeowners of the 2 firms have denied being concerned. Serene Nehls, co-owner of Bowman Meats in Cottonwood, informed The Sacramento Bee that her store was not concerned. As a substitute, she stated, a slaughterer informed her the goat he killed at Macfarlane’s was black and white, not white and brown like Cedar.
Nehls, who didn’t reply to messages searching for remark, informed the Bee that she gave Lengthy’s lawyer a written assertion a couple of goat taken from Macfarlane’s dwelling. That goat, she stated, went to Vista Actual Property to exchange one other goat that was discovered to be “insufficient.”
Chad Phillips of Vista Actual Property informed The Occasions that he bought a black and white goat on the truthful to help a buddy’s daughter who was additionally concerned within the 4-H program. After such a purchase order, the goat can be butchered and the cuts of meat delivered to the customer.
That black and white goat, he stated, was named Loin.
When requested about Cedar, he stated, “I didn’t even purchase that goat.”
Phillips stated he has been subpoened for information about his buy of the goat and the meat he obtained from it, however doesn’t plan to reply except he will get a court docket order.
There’s no strategy to inform for positive what goat his meat got here from, he stated — “It exhibits up in white wrapping and labeled, ‘loin’ and ‘shoulder.’” However he is aware of he paid about $670 for a unique goat on the truthful, not Cedar.
Within the meantime, attorneys for Lengthy are searching for a court docket order asking for added name and textual content information from Verizon, arguing in court docket filings that “neither Ms. Silva, Mr. Macfarlane, nor Mrs. Muse have supplied any credible testimony as to who greenlit Cedar’s loss of life.”
If testimony received’t carry readability as to who killed Cedar, attorneys argue, maybe telephone information will.
