Undercover Video Footage Reveals Extreme Abuse
January 10, 2006
On Monday, January 9, 2006, the owner of Esbenshade Farms, Pennsylvania's third-largest egg producer, and the manager of Esbenshade Farms-North in Mt. Joy, were each charged with 35 counts of criminal animal cruelty. The charges stem from an undercover video taken by an investigator affiliated with animal advocacy organization Compassion Over Killing.
While working at Esbenshade Farms-North from November 30 to December 9, 2005, the investigator documented appalling conditions for hundreds of thousands of hens including:
birds overcrowded in wire battery cages so small that they cannot spread their wings;
- hens left to suffer from untreated illnesses or injuries;
- birds with their wings, legs, or feet entangled in the wires of cages, unable to access food or water;
- injured or dying birds removed from their cages and left in the aisles without access to food or water;
- birds impaled on the wires of the cages with many found already dead as a result of the painful immobilization; and
- hens living in cages amongst decomposing bodies of other birds.
After reviewing the evidence, Johnna Seeton, a Pennsylvania-certified humane officer, filed the criminal charges in the Magisterial District Court in Lancaster County. Lawyers for The
Humane Society of the United States are providing legal assistance with the case.
According to COK executive director Erica Meier, "No animal should be forced to endure such abuse, and this egg factory farm should be held accountable for its cruel and inhumane treatment of hens."
Esbenshade Farms owns and operates three egg factory farms in Pennsylvania, in which an estimated 2.25 million laying hens are confined in wire battery cages. Despite being one of the nation's top egg producers, Esbenshade Farms does not even participate in the United Egg Producers' (UEP's) voluntary certification program, which sets forth the absolute barest of minimum guidelines for laying hen husbandry. While these guidelines still permit a wide variety of abuses, the fact that Esbenshade Farms will not even agree to follow them speaks loudly about this company's negligence and lack of concern about hen welfare. In fact, more than 80 percent of the egg industry participates in the UEP's program.
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