Looking for a Few Good Kids, Friends Herd

Richard Minot got the call just after midnight. There was a fire in the Trabuco Canyon barn where his daughter raises dairy goats as part of a 4-H program. Some of them may have been hurt, said the voice on the other end.

He immediately woke 17-year-old Justine, who had spent the past seven years breeding and raising the herd of 21 goats. Only hours later, the family was scheduled to head from their Laguna Hills home to the Ventura County Fair in hopes of winning a few blue ribbons in last week’s large livestock exhibition.

When they arrived at the scene, Justine gaped in terror at the firetrucks, the smoke and the blackened barn.

“When I first got there, I just started screaming,” she said. “It was horrible.”

“It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do with her,” her father added.

Only three of Justine’s goats--two females, Flower and Lilinoi, and one male named Dork--survived last week’s blaze. The trio are still being treated for burns, Minot said.

Years of hard work--spending about four hours daily milking and feeding the goats--went for naught overnight. Not only was the herd valued at about $5,000, Minot said, the family had established a personal attachment to the animals.

There aren’t many people who understand such a bond, he said.

That’s why Minot made the two-hour trek with his daughter to the Ventura fair last week, he said, despite knowing it would be difficult to watch the competitions Justine would have otherwise taken part in.

But the trip, instead, provided their ordeal a happy ending.

Local exhibitors, once word traveled about what had happened, wanted to help. Competitors meeting in Ventura County offered Justine her pick of their champion young female goats.

“It’s a real tragedy what happened, because she was trying to raise a herd and was doing so well,” said Aimee Allred, 15, who has a herd of nearly 25 dairy goats. She and her grandmother, Karen, let Justine choose two of their animals. The girls have been friends since the Minots started showing at county fairs back in the early 1990s. “I’m just doing it for Justine.”

Aimee agreed to give up Monterey Missy, the granddaughter of a permanent champion, which is a goat selected as a champion at three or more fairs. “Hopefully she’ll do well for her,” Aimee said.

Only a handful of young people in area 4-H programs choose to raise dairy goats, because it’s expensive and time-consuming, Minot said. Unlike the 4-H livestock projects destined for market, in which the animals are sold for slaughter each year after fair competition, dairy goats are cared for year after year.

That’s why fair exhibitors such as 13-year-old Phillip Cook of Lancaster wanted to help out. Phillip, who has a herd of about 40 goats, offered Justine a baby female named Tiny.

“She only had the three left, and it’s not the same when you don’t have goats anymore,” Phillip said. “I have so many, it’s not a big deal. I like all of my goats, but this is for a friend.”

The generous teenagers said they will prepare their goats and take them to the Los Angeles County Fair in mid-September so Justine can show them during that 18-day event.

“It’s so wonderful--I didn’t know people were going to give me goats,” Justine said. “I guess I didn’t realize how many friends we had until we came here.”

Anne and Dick Pigman, goat breeders who own Wooden Bridge Ranch in Buellton, said they will provide the Minots a buck, or male goat, for breeding. Even the sheep exhibitors have stepped up, collecting cash donations to help with the feed and equipment the family will need to get a new herd started.

The Orange County Fire Authority is still investigating the cause of the July 31 fire, which burned about a quarter of an acre and caused roughly $10,000 in damage, Capt. Paul Hunter said. At this point, he said, officials don’t believe it was arson.

One of the goats killed in the fire, Blondie, had just won a junior champion award at the Orange County Fair. Eight others in the herd were ribbon winners.

“She takes such wonderful care of them,” Anne Pigman said. “Everyone cried when we heard.”

But the outpouring of support from the livestock-raising community has rejuvenated the Laguna Hills High School student and her commitment to raising diary goats after what her dad called a “rough year.” In March, the family lost 12 other goats during a mountain lion attack.

For now, Justine is focusing her energy on caring for her three remaining animals. If all goes well, she may be able to enter Lilinoi in the Los Angeles County Fair in the showmanship category, which means Justine would be judged on how she shows the animal rather than on the goat’s overall quality, her dad said.

“The goat people,” her father said, “are just like a big family.”