When Cedar the goat was sold at a county fair livestock auction in 2022 for $902, he was earmarked to be slaughtered and served at a barbecue, even as his sobbing 9-year-old owner and her mother tried in vain to void the sale and spirit him away.

Jessica Long and her daughter sued Shasta County, California, officials in 2022 after sheriff’s deputies seized the girl’s goat, Cedar, who was later killed.

California sheriff’s deputies have been forced to pay a girl’s family $300,000 after taking her pet goat and sending it to slaughter. Jessica Long purchased the goat, named Cedar, in 2022 for her daughter who was enrolled in a youth development program in California.

But the $300,000 settlement with the county of Shasta and Shasta County Sheriff’s Office is the first step in moving forward,” attorney Vanessa Shakib, co-director of Advancing Law for Animals, said in a statement announcing the pact.