Letters to the Editor: Why can’t a girl get answers from Shasta officials on her pet goat?

To the editor: My heart went out to Jessica Long’s daughter, whose pet goat was slaughtered. (“A little girl’s family wants to know who slaughtered her pet goat. Shasta District Fair officials won’t say,” March 19)

I have been traumatized since the slaughter of my 4-H project “Buttercup” — my little lamb that I auctioned off at the Del Mar county fair in San Diego in 1955. Shame on the Shasta fair and the Sheriff’s Office.

Daniel Mitrovich, Apple Valley

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To the editor: Of course Shasta District Fair officials don’t want anyone to know who killed Cedar, the pet goat. Neither does the meat industry want the public to know how millions of animals are butchered. Perhaps that is why cameras are not allowed in their slaughterhouses. A description of how the animal died for our consumption should be required reading on the label of every meat product.

Shame on those who cruelly destroy sentient beings, and apparently support the callous treatment of the psyche of a 9-year-old girl.

Jeffrey Klemme, Ventura

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To the editor: Those Shasta fair officials really showed that girl who raised and loved her beautiful goat, Cedar, who’s boss didn’t they? And sure, the extravagant cruelty of these paragons of morality was really, they’d have us believe, an example of busy exemplars giving up their valuable time to teach a child an important lesson in follow-through. The girl signed up for the slaughter — didn’t she? A contract is a contract, isn’t it? And a mind is a terrible thing to change.

And what’s love or kindness got to do with anything? The way the world works is that business people with a taste for a loin of goat come first.

Jo Perry, Studio City