Letters to the Editor: A psychologist’s view of the Shasta County fair goat outrage

To the editor: I was intrigued by the amount of rhetorical energy stirred by the story of the 9-year-old girl in 4-H and her ill-fated pet goat.

In the practice of psychotherapy (and all healthcare), we are ethically and legally bound to provide “informed consent” before engaging treatments. Perhaps 4-H and Shasta County fair officials need to learn how to provide fully informed consent to children who care for animals sold for slaughter.

The kids need to be told how parting with the animal will feel. To that, the adult officials might need their own emotional reeducation — because they seem to have forgotten the emotion of falling in love and the sadness and grief that follow when losing that love.

By all means, bind children by your words, but only if you’ve made sure they know what you’re binding them to. The children did not create the words of the contract — the adults did.

Or, perhaps, children simply shouldn’t have any part in killing animals yet. Perhaps killing shouldn’t be what grows one up — becoming grown-up first might be a better plan.

Barbara Sophia Eurich-Rascoe, Pasadena

The writer is a psychologist.