Little girl was part of a county fair agro-educational program where they raise an animal for a few months and at the end it’s slaughtered. Supposed to teach them about the economics of farming and stuff.
But the little girl loved her goat so much she was crying on the day her goat was supposed to be taken away, so her mom sent the county fair people an email saying “I’ll pay for the goat and any expenses. We’ve had several deaths in the family in the past year, I don’t wanna take away one more thing my little girl loves.” Technically the goat had already been sold at auction, so the mom was on the hook for about $1000, only about $70 of which would have been profit for the county fair.
The county fair people were irate and got law enforcement involved, over this “breach of contract”. They literally got a fucking judge to sign a search warrant, authorizing them to go to this little girl’s house and search every room and every cabinet or box “large enough to contain a small goat”. The sheriff’s deputies seized the goat, and whoever they gave it to immediately slaughtered it, though they were supposed to wait until some kind of agreement had been worked out.
In the county fair’s initial email correspondence with the girl’s mother, they made it clear that they were pissed off because the story of the little girl who loved her goat was circulating on social media making them look bad, and they felt the girl needed to be taught a lesson about keeping your promises or whatever. So they refused the mother’s offer to pay for it, and insisted they get the goat. Even if it meant sending the fucking cops into her house lmao.
the congressman who bought the goat didn’t have any objections to the family saving the goat from slaughter either! it’s fucking insane that the cops were so eager to play act their swat commando fantasies that they played stooge to the benefit of no one except some self important local organizers!
Alternate link, LAtimes locks their stuff behind paywalls sometimes
Don’t forget the part where the goat wasn’t where they had a warrant to search, so they drove 500 miles, leaving the area they have legal jurisdiction in, then searched a farm they didn’t have a warrant for ans seized the goat. The fair then had the goat slaughtered, even though a court had ordered them to keep it alive until ownership was resolved and despite the fact that both potential owners of the goat had decided to keep it alive.
They broke multiple laws in order to “teach” a little girl the “lesson” that “everybody has to follow the rules”.
I sure hope all of the complaints sent to Shasta District Fair CEO Melanie Silva, whose decisions these were and continues to defend her actions, are polite and don’t waste too much ink. I’m certain nobody would take advantage of the fact that the Sasha District Fair and Event Center’s contact page lists their phone and fax numbers, not to mention the email form below that.
Would be a shame if that information was to circulate far an wide, and ruin that despicable woman’s easter holidays
Seriously just a bit of pollen could make your cat sick within a matter of minutes. Stay far away from Easter lilies if you have kitties!
Lilies, including the pollen, are FATAL to cats!
It’s nearing that time again. Remember, if you have a cat, don’t bring Easter lillies, or any in the same family, into your home!
Of all the plants people claim to be toxic to cats, this is THE plant to watch out for.
Poinsettias? potentially irritating sap, would need excessive doses to be toxic. Pothos? mildly irritating crystals in the leaves. Lilies? Organ failure.
Specifically, plants in the genus Lilium (Easter, Oriental, Tiger, Stargazer, etc etc) are the bad ones. Lily is a common name shared among a lot of different plants, some more or less toxic, but it’s the Liliums that are documented to be deadly to cats, specifically in causing kidney failure.
Amaryllis and Daffodils are other lily relatives that can be toxic, though not to the same level.
Daylilies (Hemerocalis) are unrelated plants but often listed as toxic (I’ve seen some debates from daylily people as to how true this is but better safe than sorry).
Lily of the Valley (Convallaria majalis) is not actually a lily but is very toxic to humans as well as animals, though for different reasons than Liliums, causing cardiac issues.
Peace Lilies (Spathiphyllum) are also unrelated and closer in the level of toxicity as a pothos, containing mildly irritating crystals but not deadly
Azalea/Rhododendrons are also a potential spring bloomer I would look out for, especially as I’ve seen a rise in popularity of the forced florist type azaleas this spring as an indoor pot plant. Ingestion can cause organ failure.
Vet tech here, this is all true. Do not bring lilies into your house this season if you have cats. Even if they’re ‘in a room where the cat doesn’t go’ or ‘the cat can’t reach it’. You want to know what owners tell me when they bring their cats in for lily ingestion treatment? The flowers were ‘in a room where the cat doesn’t go, but I went in there and then the phone rang so I left to get it, I only left the door open a minute’, and ‘they were up on top of the fridge where the cat can’t get, but it dropped some leaves.’
Also accept nothing, taking a small thing even like a coupon can be interpreted as you accepting it as compensation.
And the courts will agree with the party “compensating” you. Because the Court’s definition of “reasonable person” is completely divorced from reality.