The full story is worth reading, but here is a short summary:

A 9 year old girl raised a goat for the county fair through 4H. The goat was sold, and the little girl became very upset at its impending death. Her mother contacted the buyer, and they were ok with it being donated instead of killed. She also offered to cover any expenses, including what was owed to the fair ($63.14). However, the fair chose to involve police who then got a search warrant, took the goat, and had it slaughtered.

The search warrant was quite broad. It allowed deputies to “utilize breaching equipment to force open doorway(s), entry doors, exit doors, and locked containers” and to search all rooms, garages and “storage rooms, and outbuildings of any kind large enough to accommodate a small goat.”

The resource cost far exceeded what was owed and the action was against the wishes of both the previous and the new owner of the goat. There’s an ongoing lawsuit accusing the county of 4th amendment (unreasonable search and seizure) and 14th amendment (right to due process) violations.

The counter argument comes from fairs chief executive, “Making an exception for you will only teach [our] youth that they do not have to abide by the rules. Also, in this era of social media this has been a negative experience for the fairgrounds as this has been all over Facebook and Instagram.”

So who is right here?

Was the fair out of line for going to those lengths, or should the child have accepted the goats death as a learning experience?

Was the search warrant issued appropriately given the circumstances, or were there rights violations?