Over the weekend, I returned to Lancaster, PA, where Farm Sanctuary began its No Downers campaign.  (“Downers” are animals too sick to even stand, and our efforts have met with national success in the form of a federal ban on using downed cattle in the food supply. We’re now pushing to extend the ban to other species.)  I checked out Lancaster Stockyards where I’d spent many hours documenting abuses and rescuing animals, including Hilda, a sheep who had been discarded on a pile of dead animals. The stockyard is now being torn down and reduced to piles of rubble. 

I also took a trip to the New Holland Sales Stable nearby with Keith Mohler, our Pennsylvania law enforcement agent. New Holland is notorious for selling horses to slaughter, and it also sells  goats, sheep, pigs, and cattle. Both Lancaster and New Holland stockyards have been convicted of cruelty to animals for neglecting and mistreating downed animals because of Keith’s efforts on behalf of Farm Sanctuary. 

Like other livestock markets, there is graffiti written on the walls and livestock pens at New Holland. Much of it is vulgar and obscene, but some seems to be sadly profound. One said “Lord, help me, I can’t change” and another, “We are the devil.” 

Lancaster stockyards is now being reduced to piles of rubble.


 

Keith Mohler, humane enforcement officer, checks the conditions
of animals at New Holland Sales Stable.
 

Graffiti at New Holland Sales Stable: “Lord help me, I can’t change”

Graffiti at New Holland Sales Stable: “We are the devil”