Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Tragic story inspires record price for goat

A boy from the heart of Texas with a fifth-place show goat and a tragic story inspired one of the most emotional and lucrative outcomes ever witnessed at a San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo auction, participants said. Dustin Mangus, 10, of Mills County was injured in a December wreck that killed his father, who helped care for the goat. As word of the boy's hardship spread in the Saturday auction crowd, dozens of bidders rallied the sale price to a record $150,000. The outcome wowed the clean-cut youth and his family from Mullin, along with stock show officials. The sale price surpassed the $80,000 fetched by this year's grand champion steer, and it topped the amount paid for any other animal ever sold at the Junior Livestock Auction, livestock director Jeff Thayne said. A fifth-place goat typically would fetch about $3,000, said Ronnie Urbanczyk, chairman of the auction. Instead, 70 or so bidders heard the boy's story and pitched in during the emotionally charged auction, which reminded some of what it means to be a part of the agricultural community. In early December, Dustin lost his father, David Mangus, 33, in a vehicle wreck, said John Carl Smith, the boy's grandfather. David Mangus was driving Dustin and two younger children to school on a foggy morning when he lost control of his pickup and crashed into a tree, Smith said. Dustin still is healing from three facial-reconstruction surgeries. He also broke his left arm and a finger, Smith said...read more

COMMENT: You might want to take the time to read this one.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for that great story. That story is a real tear jerker. I'm known as a pretty tough guy but I had to get up and close the door to the office. More importantly, it shows that the spirit of the West is still alive and well. God bless all the people in San Antonio that made this happen. With people like that helping a fine youngster, I real don't worry as much about this country as I once did.