Livestock auction in New Holland where meat men prey on horses is banning photos and videos

MARCH AGAINST HORSE SLAUGHTER — News of the Horse reports that the livestock auction in New Holland, Pennsylvania, is banning photos and videos.

New Holland auction is notorious among horse lovers chiefly because it is one of the largest sales rings where horses are dumped in some of the most deplorable circumstances imaginable and preyed on by meat man acting on behalf of horse slaughter plants in Canada and Mexico.

Anyone with even the slightest knowledge of horse slaughter has heard of New Holland auction.

It is where thousands of horses each year enter what has commonly become referred to as the “slaughter pipeline”.

Ford Turner, reporting for McClatchy-Tribune Informational Services, writes:

Every Monday, 200 or more thoroughbreds, Amish-owned work animals, Tennessee walkers, tiny “miniatures” and other varieties of horses pass between tiered plank seats full of auction spectators. The roughly 1,500 consignors, or sellers, who bring animals to the auction every week come from Pennsylvania, Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, Maine and elsewhere.

Jo Parto, a humane police officer with Animal Rescue League of Berks County, said [in 2014] New Holland gained a reputation in years past because of cruelty cases. But, she said, New Holland “has cleaned up a lot. They try not to take in the skinny, injured horses.”

Skinny, injured horses are not going to bring much of a price if any, even by the meat man — or should we say especially by the meat man. Meat men, also called kill buyers, are typically paid by the pound. Skinny horses don’t produce much meat. Injured horses aren’t likely to survive the long, painful journey to Mexico or Canada crammed together with other terrified horses with no food or water in all temperatures.

And if New Holland has cleaned up its act, why are they banning photos and videos?

It is pretty apparent to us it is because New Holland auction no longer wants the egregious acts of cruelty committed against the luckless animals who pass through its hands to be exposed and documented. The ones below are cases in point.

Lancaster Online reported in November, 2016:

Animal cruelty officers hope DNA testing will help find the former owner of three mutilated horses found this week at New Holland Sales Stables. Someone used a caustic or acidic substance to obliterate identifying tattoos on the inner lips of the thoroughbred horses, according to veterinarian Dr. James Holt, who works for the auction house. The mares were turned over to the Pennsylvania SPCA. Similar cases have been reported elsewhere in Pennsylvania, PSPCA spokeswoman Gillian Kocher said.

News of the Horse reported:

In March, 2015, a partially blind horse (see below) who was shot over 120 times at close range by a paintball gun was found at the New Holland auction. See original story at Lancaster Online. See follow up story on the “paint ball horse” they named Lily.

Lily, the “Paint Ball Horse”, abandoned at New Holland auction, was rescued by Jon Stewart and his wife Tracey. She was treated at New Bolton where she had to have an eye removed, and retired to a sanctuary. Sadly, Lily died, peacefully, shortly thereafter. The owner who dumped Lily at New Holland later said the mare was not hit with paint balls but was “used as a canvass”.

In May, 2016, a horse was dropped off at the sale in terrible condition. When auction workers saw investigators with Animal Angels documenting the condition of the horse, they took the horse to the back, shot him, and dumped him in the trash. See full story at Animals’ Angels.

News of the Horse point out:

It is illegal in Pennsylvania to sell a horse that “which by reason of debility, disease or lameness, or for other cause, could not be worked or used without violating the laws against cruelty to animals, or leads, rides, drives or transports any such horse for any purpose, except that of conveying the horse to the nearest available appropriate facility for its humane keeping or destruction or for medical or surgical treatment.” See https://www.animallaw.info/statute/pa-cruelty-consolidated-cruelty-statutes.

Where are the people working for the USDA who reportedly have an office at New Holland auction while these crimes are being committed?