Here are the facts of the case, not some mis-informed article:
- In California, at the county fair level, most of these are terminal shows (i.e.: they have a market sale). The exhibitor, the girl in this case, and their parents can elect to "not sale" the animal (unless they are a Champion, in which most cases is required to be terminal).
- In this case the girl was not a champion, and she and her parents elected to keep the animal in the county fair sale. The animal was sold.
- As a buyer at these county fair sales you can elect to do 3 things: 1) have the animal custom slaughterd/butchered, 2) resale the animal, 3) live pick up the animal and take it home.
- In this case the buyer chose to resale the animal. Which means the animal then becomes property of the resale buyer (either the fair, local sale barn or a meat processor).
The responsibility then falls on the county fair (state) to deliver/provide the animal to the resale buyer.
For example - buyer pays $1000 for the animal at auction. Choose to resale, the market price for resale is $500. They buyer then only pays $500 as a "donation". The kid still gets the $1000 (minus commission).
- There are chain of custody rules that also don't allow animals sold in a terminal sale, to then go to other shows. That chain of custody responsibility lies with the fair/state. Anyone with a kid who has done a 4H/FFA show knows this.
- Once this animal was sold by the kid, and then put up for resale by the buyer, it then became the responsibility of the fair to get the animal to the resale buyer.
- Again, the kid/parent could have elected to "no sale" the animal of they wanted to take it home, or they could have worked out a deal with the Buyer to select "live pick up" and they could have got the animal back later.
The parent did not do any of this. When it was time for the resale animals to get picked up from the fair, the girl realizing she wouldn't see her goat again, threw a tantrum. The mother, instead of dealing with her daughter and teaching her a valuable lesson in life, decided to try and make her daughter happy by waging this fight with the fair/state through social media and now mainstream media.
Those of us that have/had kids in these 4H/FFA projects know how attached the kids get to these animals. It is very sad for them to let that animal go at the end. Especially when they first start out. But it is our responsibility to teach them this lesson, and be a good parent through that process.
In this case, the mom did not make that choice. This is her fault and she knows it. Instead of accepting responsibility, and being a good parent for her daughter, she is teaching her daughter to just throw a fit and escalate that fit when you don't get your way.
Sorry for the TLDR