The Tragic Story of a Little Girl's Goat
This blog discusses the story of a police officer killing a little girl's goat. It also includes details from the lawsuit and the potential for a large punitive judgment. The blog also reflects on the need for justice in this case.
Dr. Robert Rohde
Lead Scientist @BerkeleyEarth. Physics PhD & data nerd. Usually focused on climate change, fossil fuels, & air quality issues. → @RARohde@fediscience.org
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Story of police killing a little girl's goat is really sticking with me.
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) April 3, 2023
As such, I read the actual lawsuit. If anything, some of the details therein make it even worse.
If there is any justice, their needs to be a large punitive judgment in this case.
Details follow. 🧵 https://t.co/89z38Qb8Iy -
Amended legal complaint: https://t.co/3XZOrJ7amv
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) April 3, 2023
Background: With her mother, a 9-year-old girl participating in 4-H bought a baby goat called Cedar.
She raised this goat for 3 months & bonded with it.
The original plan was for the goat to be sold for meat. -
The girl entered the goat in a Youth Auction run by the Shasta Fair Association.
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) April 3, 2023
However, before the date of the auction, the child and her mother informed the Fair that they had changed their minds and wanted to withdraw.
The Fair refused to allow them to withdraw. -
This is the first point where the Fair f-ed up.
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) April 3, 2023
The little girl was the actual owner of the goat. Under California Law, minors have a broad right to disaffirm contracts.
As a matter of law, her pre-auction request to withdraw should have been honored. -
Significantly, the Fair knew that little girl was the actual owner, as the Youth Fair rules explicitly require all animals exhibited to be actually owned by minors.
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) April 3, 2023 -
The Fair went ahead with the auction. The goat was nominally sold to a State Senator for $900. The Fair was to receive $63, with the rest going to the girl.
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) April 3, 2023
The Fair, though acting to facilitate the sale, was at no point the actual owner of the goat. -
After the auction, the little girl and her mother again asserted that they did not want to sell Cedar, and they removed Cedar from the fairgrounds.
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) April 3, 2023
The following day the mother started contacting the Fair and the buyer to try and resolve the situation. -
The buyer agreed to let Cedar live.
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) April 3, 2023
However, the Fair insisted that Cedar must be returned and slaughtered. They refused the mother's offer to compensate them for the $63 they were owed, as well as any other costs. -
The Fair administrator seemed to want to punish them:
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) April 3, 2023
"Making an exception for you will only teach [our] youth that they do not have to abide by the rules."
"Also, ... this has been a negative experience for the fairgrounds as this has been all over Facebook and Instagram." -
After some back and forth, the Fair contacted police.
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) April 3, 2023
Despite the Fair never being the legal owner of Cedar, and only actually entitled to $63, the Fair alleged grand theft.
Involving the police made things so much worse. -
The police were explicitly made aware that the ownership of the goat was disputed.
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) April 3, 2023
Under California Law, you can't commit grand theft if you believe (even erroneously) that the property lawfully belongs to you.
Such ownership disputes are a matter for civil courts, not police. -
Nonetheless, sheriff's deputies obtained a warrant to seize Cedar, and then travelled over 500 miles to seize the little girl's goat from a farm in Northern CA.
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) April 3, 2023
They spent more on gas alone than the Fair was even owed.
What happens next is where the police really f-ed up. -
Both California law generally – and the warrant specifically – state that the police must retain control of seized property until the outcome of a judicial process to determine proper ownership.
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) April 3, 2023
Instead, the deputies delivered Cedar to the Fair for slaughter. -
By effectively appointing themselves as judges and executioners, the sheriff's deputies deprived the girl of her due process rights.
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) April 3, 2023 -
The whole story is an almost-cartoonishly evil abuse by people who apparently wanted to teach a little girl a "lesson" by killing her goat.
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) April 3, 2023
If they had behaved reasonably and legally, the goat would simply have been removed from the auction at the start. -
Instead the Fair's actions are tantamount to theft and the intentional infliction of emotional distress on a child, while the police violated due process and search & seizure protections.
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) April 3, 2023 -
There can't be any real justice for Cedar, but if there is going to be justice at all, I hope the Fair and the Shasta County Sheriff are hit with a large judgment including punitive damages against them.
— Dr. Robert Rohde (@RARohde) April 3, 2023