Hearing begins Thursday, March 1, 2007, at 1:30 p.m.
February 28, 2007
On Thursday, March 1, 2007, at 1:30 p.m., the Magisterial District Court in Lancaster County will continue hearing a case of criminal animal cruelty against the owner and manager of Esbenshade Farms North, an egg farm in Mt. Joy, Pennsylvania. In January 2006, state-certified humane officer Johnna Seeton charged each defendant with 35 counts of criminal cruelty to animals stemming from documentation presented to her that includes an undercover video filmed by an investigator with Washington, D.C.-based animal advocacy charity Compassion Over Killing. The footage was gathered while the investigator was employed at the egg farm from in late 2005, and reveals hens impaled on loose wires of their cages; hens with their toes or legs entangled in the wires of the cage floor unable to access food or water; and decomposing birds left rotting in cages with live hens.. The defense's attempt to suppress this video evidence was denied by the court during a preliminary hearing in April 2006. The trial resumed in August 2006, during which poultry welfare scientist Ian Duncan testified that the undercover video taken inside Esbenshade Farms revealed some of the worst conditions for egg-laying hens he has ever seen. Lawyers with The Humane Society of the United States are providing legal assistance with the case.
Court dates:
- Thursday, March 1 at 1:30 p.m.
- Friday, March 2 at 9:30 a.m.
Location
- 920 S. Spruce St., Elizabethtown, PA
Investigative footage and hi-res photos available upon request at 202-270-8253.
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