The story of Cedar the goat, who was seized by a Shasta County, California, sheriff’s deputy from the weeping nine-year-old girl who raised him, sharply focuses on conflicting views on animals. Cedar’s participation in a community barbecue at a county fair has resulted in reactions divided between whether the goat is seen as a stolen family pet or livestock destined for slaughter.
Cedar was raised in 4-H, a USDA youth program. Over the course of a year, the children adjust commercial breeds of cows, pigs, goats, and sheep to their proper weight at the market, culminating in an auction for display and slaughter at the county fair.
Thousands of children across the country raise animals this way each year. But Cedar’s sad story illustrates the cultural clash between those of us who raise livestock and those of us who know animals only as pets.
In Cedar’s case, the young caretaker tearfully decided not to want him massacred. The girl’s mother took over the goat after it offered to buy back the cedar from the Justice Department. The Shasta District Exposition Authority has reviewed the grand theft and has asked law enforcement to recover the property. Using the tactics that are the subject of a lawsuit filed by non-profit law firm Advance Law for Animals, lawmakers reportedly sought out, seized and delivered cedar to a slaughterhouse at a farm 320 miles away. ing.
Today, less than half of 4-H members live on farms. The lessons of the company’s animal husbandry program may pose a challenge for those who don’t raise the animals that end up on the butcher’s counter. Breeding an animal in 4-H requires a young member to agree to sell the animal for slaughter and to honor the agreement despite emotional hardship. Caring for meat animals therefore requires developing psychological skills beyond feeding, vaccination, raking manure and trimming hooves.
At the University of Colorado Boulder, sociologist Colter Ellis and I interviewed children with 4-H immediately after acquiring the animals and during the auction. They described their commitment to feeding the animals, handling them and earning their trust. In some ways, their relationship with animals was similar to their relationship with pets. But unlike pets, kids knew their animals would be loaded onto trucks after the auction. We expected to hear about grief and loss, but instead learned how children dealt with those difficult emotions. As sociologist Rhoda Wilkie has discovered in her studies of livestock raisers, 4-H members need to be both “empathetic caregivers” and “economic producers.” got it. Members have learned from peers and adult mentors to consider the lambs, pigs, and other animals they raise as “market animals” rather than pets. They say that only the youngest children cry when animals are sold, and that older members try to control their emotions and imitate experienced children who reap the financial benefits of auctions. I noticed that
Children learn norms related to feeling and expressing emotions through “emotional socialization” found elsewhere in environments involving animal harm. For example, Dorian Solot and Arnold Aalouk, in their study of children’s involvement in animal dissection in science classes, found that “teachers, parents, senior students, and the mass media have It provides models and expectations for how to manage Anatomy is a rite of passage into the careers of many scientists and medical practitioners, so managing anxiety and squeamishness influences whether students go down that path. Similarly, as a rite of passage into animal husbandry culture, the 4-H program requires unique emotional skills. One girl used to say, “I used to cry a lot, but I always knew what my children were raised for.”
The most important, albeit implicit, lesson conveyed in 4-H livestock programs concerns the belief in what it takes to maintain dominion over animals or that animals exist to meet human needs. . Although the term “domination” does not appear in his 4-H statements, some members apparently believed their actions were authorized by God. For example, when I asked one girl what she thought about selling her pigs, she said, “I remember in the Bible that God gave us animals to eat.” I answered. In this view, slaughter is not cruelty, but necessity. If one wants to eat meat, someone has to raise animals. But as 4-H members move further and further away from their agricultural heritage, that lesson may seem cruel to those who know animals primarily as pets.
In Cedar’s story, the sheriff’s office’s seemingly heavy-handed method of getting him back requires justification. Setting aside other duties, they drove hundreds of miles to seize the goat. This is particularly puzzling given the family’s willingness to reimburse the trade fair and the purchaser’s decision to relinquish rights to the cedar. But law enforcement can, albeit imperfectly, better understand it through the lens of the contradiction between the legal and perceived status of livestock. Since livestock are commodities, they are legally considered property. Of course, the owner also comes to recognize animals as being more than just “things”. Animals temporarily become “sentient commodities” that become pets and friends, and are still destined to be sold and slaughtered.
Cedar’s owner and mother knew what they had signed up for. The expo livestock auction contract states in bold, “This is a final sale. No exceptions!” When the girl and her mother tried to pull the cedar out of the auction, fair authorities followed the rules. In a June 28 email, the expo’s CEO argued that making exceptions would only teach children that they “do not have to follow the rules set for everyone.” But it certainly would have been better to teach this kid about the power of compassion by allowing him to opt out of the auction before it was too late. Some may decide not to send their friends to the slaughterhouse, perhaps in future contracts allowing some flexibility, especially with minors, knowing that their relationship with animals will evolve. deaf. If 4-H is to benefit all members, it will need to adapt to changing attitudes towards animals.
A court will decide whether the cedar was a market animal or a stolen pet with tragic consequences. But another question lies at the heart of this story. What is the cost of our dominion over animals? Livestock keepers must learn to harden their emotions and do the emotionally and ethically demanding tasks of coping with changing animal conditions. And by doing so, those of us who eat meat can avoid it.
The story of Cedar the Goat reveals the ambiguity we hold towards animals. Animals can be commodities and beloved pets, but they can’t be both. Their fate is determined by time and place. Unfortunately, Cedar was in the wrong place at the wrong time.
This is an opinion and analysis article and the views expressed by the author are not necessarily those of the author. Scientific American.
