9-Year-Old Suing State Fair After They Allegedly Barbecued Her Pet Goat

When you take your pet to the state fair, odds are, you will want it to come home with you. At the very least, you will want it back at some point.

What you don’t want is for it to be served as someone’s dinner.

But one 9-year-old girl claims that’s exactly what happened with her pet goat. She took it to the California state fair, and it would up getting barbecued, a lawsuit filed on her behalf claims.

Actually, the suit alleges that the goat was sold for $902, slaughtered, and barbecued despite the family wanting to withdraw its entry for auction. The suit was filed by the girl’s mother and claims that girl and the goat formed a tight bond.

So the mother went to get the goat back. Only by then, it was too little, too late. She succeeded in snagging the goat but was told by the head of the fair that she could face felony charges for taking the animal without permission, as relayed by the Sacramento Bee.

9-Year-Old Suing State Fair

‘It was heartbreaking. 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,” the girl’s mother wrote in an email to the Shasta District Fair.

‘I knew when I took it that my next steps were to make it right with the buyer and the fairgrounds. I will pay you back for the goat and any other expenses I caused. I would like to ask for your support in finding a solution.”

The fair returned the email and said the “solution” was to return the goat.

“Making an exception for you will only teach out youth that they do not have to abide by the rules that are set up for all participants,” wrote Melanie Silva, Shasta District Fair Chief Executive Officer, via the Bee. “Unfortunately, this is out of my hands. You will need to bring the goat back to the Shasta District Fair immediately.”

Eventually, sheriff’s deputies seized the goat off a property for which they did not have a warrant, the suit alleges.

So far, though, there is no evidence that the goat has actually been slaughtered and cooked. It’s believed to be what happened, but it’s not official — making for an interesting twist to the whole case.

“At this time we don’t have that specific information and we can only speculate,” said the girl’s attorney, via the Bee. “While it hasn’t been confirmed as a factual matter, we believe the goat has been killed.  

“Looking at this case, what we see is county and fair officials improperly used their authority and connections to transform a purely civil dispute into a sham criminal matter.”

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