Also consider that they turned down the money, knowing that they would still have to give her the money it sold for. Fairs only keep a modest fee, maybe 10%, of the sale.
So there was no monetary loss for the fair. This really was just about teaching the girl a lesson.
The snag for the fair is that they sent out cops to enforce their contract instead of going through the courts. This shows that their whole interest was in making sure the goal was slaughtered, irrespective of its ownership or value. It was an act of spite, to put the girl in her place.
It hints at the real purpose of the auctions and the animal husbandry show around it: to desensitize children to animal slaughter. That’s why it’s so important this girl lose after withdrawing her goat. She can’t be seen by other kids to have not been desensitized. Their desensitization depends on group dynamics.
Slaughter is a fact of life in the country and our city-slicker dinner plates. But they still veil it in the smarmy language of youth potential, so you know what? They can damn well put up with the consequences of youths potentiating themselves otherwise. They can figure a way out that doesn’t involve such oppressive, sadistic treatment of a little girl.
It’s already a wild contract where parents are acting as cutouts for child parties, but America is full of that shit (see also: tough love camps that narcissists disappear their embarassing kids to). Having it enforced by armed cops, though, that might just have caused a real problem this time for team cruelty-is-the-point.
