From a nine year-old.

She put the goat up for auction at a fair-sponsored 4H event. It was won at auction by a state senator for over $900. The girl changed her mind and decided to keep the goat as a pet. No money ever changed hands.

Her mother offered to pay the fair their 7% share of the sale and the state senator didn't object to letting the girl keep the animal. She also offered to pay over $900, the amount originally offered for the goat.

Instead, the fair organizer contacted the state department of agriculture, which investigated the case. A claim was made that the goat was stolen from a charity BBQ. This claim appears to be false.

Two weeks later sheriffs deputies and police officers were on the hunt for the pet goat. They drove over 500 miles to eventually seize the goat. Instead of holding the goat until a magistrate could determine proper ownership, the police independently determined a third-party was the owner and gave it to them without a court order.

https://reason.com/2023/03/31/police-traveled-500-miles-to-seize-girls-pet-goat-for-slaughter/

Amateur hour continues

I was in 4-H as a kid, made the auction with a pen of broilers a couple of times. Both times they were bought by local businessmen for a few hundred dollars. They had no interest in the birds and let me keep them, which were then slaughtered with the rest of the flock. The businessmen were mainly interested in supporting local youth. That may be a different story with a grand champion steer.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the surface, it seems like a massive overreaction. I bet the state senator who bid on the goat wished he had never done so. However, I also see the point the fair officials have about not making an exception. The kids need to learn about making a commitment. The point about 4H is not to raise pets but teach about agriculture and livestock.

I bet the parents could have predicted this situation even before the kid ever got a goat.

CardiffGiant said:

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How much tax payer money was spent to do this 500 mile drive for a damn goat. Sounds like a complete waste of money.

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Certainly a lot more than $900.

torrid said:

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I was in 4-H as a kid, made the auction with a pen of broilers a couple of times. Both times they were bought by local businessmen for a few hundred dollars. They had no interest in the birds and let me keep them, which were then slaughtered with the rest of the flock. The businessmen were mainly interested in supporting local youth. That may be a different story with a grand champion steer.

I have mixed feelings about this. On the surface, it seems like a massive overreaction. I bet the state senator who bid on the goat wished he had never done so. However, I also see the point the fair officials have about not making an exception. The kids need to learn about making a commitment. The point about 4H is not to raise pets but teach about agriculture and livestock.

I bet the parents could have predicted this situation even before the kid ever got a goat.

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My guess is he made a pledge that went into buying the goat and he probable didn't know what he bought. It was just a donation to the youth.

That's how most of these auction go.

If this is like any other county it's a parental pissing contest where somebodies child lost to somebody else's child and now their mad. But somebody had some stroke to get the state police involved or they thought it wouldn't go this far.

These things have lost their purpose when parental politics get involved.

As a huge supporter of FFA and 4H, I believe this story is pretty slanted - at best - and completely disingenuous at worst.

The family could have bought the goat themselves (and not paid) at the auction if it was that important.

Maybe these groups need to do a better job of letting the kids know these animals are being sold to be eaten.


The articles I read were about her not wanting the baby goat to die.
Cluster**** on all sides

Tanya 93 said:

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Maybe these groups need to do a better job of letting the kids know these animals are being sold to be eaten.


The articles I read were about her not wanting the baby goat to die.
Cluster**** on all sides

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I think that starts with the parents. I bet they told her she her goat wouldn't be killed, but then their hand was forced when she placed into the auction.

There's gotta be more to this story.

This is a semi educated guess on my part without reading much of what i consider a salacious article.... the goat was likely sold for $1,100 or $1,200 thru the auction with the buyer opting to "floor" him (floor buyer then pays the floor with original buyer only owing the difference) .... which means the floor buyer becomes the official goats owner. When that buyer reviewed purchase slips and totals, the goat - which the floor buyer had been charged for - was missing / stolen.

I side with the auction / buyer here. The parents could've fixed this before the goat sold. This is a life lesson for the kid. Wether have no purpose but meat production.

Article is probably from some animal rights activist kook.

torrid said:

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Tanya 93 said:

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Maybe these groups need to do a better job of letting the kids know these animals are being sold to be eaten.


The articles I read were about her not wanting the baby goat to die.
Cluster**** on all sides

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I think that starts with the parents. I bet they told her she her goat wouldn't be killed, but then their hand was forced when she placed into the auction.

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And the parents STILL could have bought the goat at the auction. It's 100% on them.

Old May Banker said:

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This is a semi educated guess on my part without reading much of what i consider a salacious article.... the goat was likely sold for $1,100 or $1,200 thru the auction with the buyer opting to "floor" him.... which means the floor buyer becomes the official goats owner. When that buyer reviewed purchase slips and totals, the goat - which the floor buyer had been charged for - was missing / stolen.

I side with the auction / buyer here. The parents could've fixed this before the goat sold. This is a life lesson for the kid. Wether have no purpose but meat production.

Article is probably from some animal rights activist kook.

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I think you are describing a normal commercial livestock auction. This was more a charity event with the 4-H kids being beneficiaries. With the girl not living up to her end.

Nope... I'm describing an FFA / 4H auction. I have spent millions at them and bought hundreds and hundreds of animals.

Old May Banker said:

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Nope... I'm describing an FFA / 4H auction. I have spent millions at them and bought hundreds and hundreds of animals.

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Yep. That's the way we used to do it around here at the County Show.

One year, we bought the floor on pigs. We ended up with something like 70 to 80 pigs that night, hauled them home, and then spent the next three or four hours building a pen for them. I didn't get to sleep until about 5 am that morning and missed school that day.

Now, though, it's a premium auction and the kid keeps the show animal.

torrid said:

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Old May Banker said:

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This is a semi educated guess on my part without reading much of what i consider a salacious article.... the goat was likely sold for $1,100 or $1,200 thru the auction with the buyer opting to "floor" him.... which means the floor buyer becomes the official goats owner. When that buyer reviewed purchase slips and totals, the goat - which the floor buyer had been charged for - was missing / stolen.

I side with the auction / buyer here. The parents could've fixed this before the goat sold. This is a life lesson for the kid. Wether have no purpose but meat production.

Article is probably from some animal rights activist kook.

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I think you are describing a normal commercial livestock auction. This was more a charity event with the 4-H kids being beneficiaries. With the girl not living up to her end.

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There is typically a fairly sizable premium paid to benefit the kids. At a commercial auction, you wouldn't pay such a premium. Why would a buyer in a commercial auction buy livestock at a premium and then send it to the floor and pay the premium to the seller? It not only doesn't work that way, it wouldn't make any sense to work that way.

Added context from a PM I received on the matter:

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The reason article is a little light and doesn't mention the mom's admitted transgression.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-03-30/goat-slaughter-shasta-county-fair

"My daughter sobbed in her pen with her goat," Long wrote to the Shasta County fair's manager on June 27, 2022. "The barn was mostly empty and at the last minute I decided to break the rules and take the goat that night and deal with the consequences later."

Sounds like the mom potentially trespassed and probably stole the goat, which may have been the fair's legal property at that point.

The cop raid is an obvious overreaction, but it doesn't seem the mom was 100% above board in how she handled things.

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Can it play LB?

Not a Bot said:

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Added context from a PM I received on the matter:

Quote:

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The reason article is a little light and doesn't mention the mom's admitted transgression.

https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2023-03-30/goat-slaughter-shasta-county-fair

"My daughter sobbed in her pen with her goat," Long wrote to the Shasta County fair's manager on June 27, 2022. "The barn was mostly empty and at the last minute I decided to break the rules and take the goat that night and deal with the consequences later."

Sounds like the mom potentially trespassed and probably stole the goat, which may have been the fair's legal property at that point.

The cop raid is an obvious overreaction, but it doesn't seem the mom was 100% above board in how she handled things.

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When I was in FFA, we weren't required to sell the livestock at the show. Selling it was an option that nearly everyone took.

I did know one girl who had a very high placing steer at the Houston Stock Show one year. I think it was second in its class and first went on to be the Grand Champion of the show. She could have gotten a lot fo the steer, but she kept it to show in the county show a couple of weeks later expecting it to be an easy road to being the Grand Champion here. As it turned out, her steer got Reserve Champion at the county show and so it didn't sell for what it would have if she had sold it in Houston.

Lehto made a video about it. From his standpoint as an attorney he's curious as to if the sales contract was with the minor or with the parent. If it's with the minor, in California she can legally pull out of the deal. Also had a fun train of thought on the fungibility of goats.

I'm also confused as to how this auction actually works. The guy bids on it and wins. He is OK with canceling the deal. As a politician I'm sure he didn't want to look bad. But it's not him who files the complaint with the department of agriculture, it's a third-party who was holding a charity barbecue. They are not the people who purchased the goat. Assuming there was some sort of pledge from the organizer or the auction winner to sell/donate it to the barbecue? Maybe they were unaware of what was actually happening.

In that case, perhaps the organizer could have, should have, or maybe did inform the bbq of the situation and they could've worked something out to make everyone whole. Instead they wasted a bunch of state resources on something they could have been made whole on in five minutes. The mom offered to give them the full price of the goat.

Instead, in order to "teach the girl a lesson," we have deputies driving 500 miles and searching multiple goat farms looking for the one specific goat. And now there's a federal lawsuit against the officers eating up more time and resources.

I found her.

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I took one lamb. And I ran away, as fast as I could…I don't know. I had no food or water. It was very odd. I thought - if I can even save just one... but he got so heavy. So heavy... I didn't get more than a few miles before the sheriff's car found me. The rancher was so angry he sent me to live at the Lutheran Orphanage in Bozeman. I never saw the ranch again...

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Sounds like the mom screwed up from start to finish. Didn't ensure her kid understood what was happening and then took the situation into her own hands.

The fair perhaps didn't need to react at all like they did, but they were obviously pissed the mom broke in and took the goat

LeonardSkinner said:

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We always knew that California would be the first state where the cops would take your kid away.

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No kidding...

Replace "goat" with "airplane" and $900 with $250,000 and we have a story we can all relate to.

If that happened with a placing animal in Texas, I'd 100% assume the kid and their family tried to sell the animal to somebody else to show and fabricated this entire story when they got caught.

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I did know one girl who had a very high placing steer at the Houston Stock Show one year. I think it was second in its class and first went on to be the Grand Champion of the show. She could have gotten a lot fo the steer, but she kept it to show in the county show a couple of weeks later expecting it to be an easy road to being the Grand Champion here. As it turned out, her steer got Reserve Champion at the county show and so it didn't sell for what it would have if she had sold it in Houston.

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That's not an option today. If you place, you sell.

For stuff like lambs and hogs, your animal goes on the slaughter truck as you exit the ring at shows like Houston.

Most, if not all, FFA premium auctions, have a floor buyer for all livestock. They bid, according to market prices, what they will give per pound for goats, sheep, steers, etc. Some buyers - most here - keep the animal themselves and have it processed for food. But many buyers don't have that luxury or a means to deal with an animal they've purchased. So they in turn "floor it" which transfers ownership from the premium buyer to the floor buyer.

As an example, if you gave $1200 for her 100 pound goat but had no plans for it and didn't want to spend over 1000 bucks, you'd "floor it".... if the floor price was $2.25 per pound, the floor buyer owes $225 and the premium buyer owes $975.... but the floor buyer owns the goat.

I think that's exactly what happened here and why the premium buyer is out of the loop and the floor buyer is suing for their stolen goat.

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I think it was second in its class and first went on to be the Grand Champion of the show.

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NM... I completely misread this.