AnimalVoicesNews Source/Letters: Intelligencer Journal <http://www.lancasteronline.com/pages/site/contact.php> Comment: <http://talkback.lancasteronline.com/index.php?act=Post&CODE=02&f=43&t=42380 > Link: http://local.lancasteronline.com/4/201254
Mount Joy egg-farm cruelty case resumes By Susan E. Lindt, Staff <slindt @ lnpnews.com>close spaces Intelligencer Journal Published: Mar 02, 2007 3:28 AM EST LANCASTER COUNTY, Pa. - The owner of one of the state's largest egg farms was back in court Thursday facing animal-cruelty charges in a case that left off nearly six months ago. Charged with 35 counts each of animal cruelty are Esbenshade Farms' chief executive H. Glenn Esbenshade and farm manager Jay Musser. Each violation carries a potential fine of $50 to $750 and up to 90 days in prison. The case stems from a videotape reportedly made in December 2005 by undercover animal-rights activist John Brothers, who took a job maintaining chicken houses at the Mount Joy farm where an estimated 600,000 laying hens are kept. Brothers' videotape reportedly shows dead hens impaled on wire cages, heaps of dead birds, decomposed birds left in crowded cages with live hens and other inhumane conditions. On Thursday at District Justice Jayne F. Duncan's Elizabethtown court, defense attorneys tried to poke holes in the case brought by Humane Society police officer Johnna L. Seeton, who viewed the videotape in December 2005 after it was brought to her attention by the Washington, D.C.-based animal-rights advocacy group Compassion Over Killing. Seeton testified the videotape shows dead birds left in cages with live hens so long the carcasses had disintegrated to nothing but feathers and bones. She said others were impaled on or trapped by cage wires that kept them out of reach of food and water. Defense attorney Chris Patterson emphasized Seeton didn't inspect Esbenshade chicken houses herself and the knowledge she has of conditions at Esbenshade Farms is only what she gleaned from the videotape. Patterson also laid groundwork during his cross-examination of Seeton to argue it was Brothers' job at Esbenshade Farms to remove dead and ailing birds from cages, so if Brothers' videotape shows cages containing dead birds, it's because he wasn't properly performing his job. Seeton confirmed under cross-examination it was Brothers' job to remove dead birds but said Brothers couldn't keep up with the 170,000 birds he was charged with maintaining and that some of them had been long dead when he took the job. Attorney Gordon Einhorn is prosecuting the case on behalf of the district attorney's office, which does not handle animal-cruelty cases. Thursday, Einhorn called to the stand Texas poultry veterinarian Nedim Buyumichi, who said research shows chickens exhibit pain responses similar to humans and other animals. "Chickens behave in a way that clearly indicates they're responding to pain as we do," Buyumichi testified. In gruesome testimony, Buyumichi explained the lengthy process by which the impaled chickens he said he observed in Brothers' videotape likely died. Buyumichi said a healthy bird might have lived up to five days without access to food and water, struggling to free herself from a wire that impaled her. He said the dead hens likely were trampled by other hens in the cages and when the healthier hens detected blood, they likely pecked at her while she was still alive. At some point, Buyumichi said, "learned helplessness" kicks in, and the hen would stop struggling and eventually die. Buyumichi said the decomposed birds he saw in the videotape appeared to have been dead for weeks because their carcasses appeared "stiff and paperlike" and others had decomposed to a liquid that conformed to the shape of the cage around them. Einhorn again emphasized in his cross-examination that Buyumichi had not inspected any Esbenshade hens or facilities in person. Buyumichi agreed, but he said he is trained in examining forensic evidence related to veterinary medicine and often does so without the benefit of examining a carcass. Testimony continues at 9 a.m. today. E-mail Susan Lindt at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Related Headlines Video evidence OK'd for animal cruelty case Settlement eyed in egg-farm case Chickens 'contented,' not 'happy' Felony charges KO'd in Kreider Farms case Kennel owner to face 7 charges No comments currently in TalkBack, be the first one to post! ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~> This is distibuted for nonprofit research and educational purposes only. [Ref.http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.html] You are invited to read past articles and alerts, subscribe, or unsubscribe or email with subject "subscribe" or "unsubscribe." BushWatchersNews: http://groups-beta.google.com/groups?q=bushwatchernews&start=0&scoring=d AnimalVoicesAlerts:http://groups-beta.google.com/group/AnimalVoicesAlerts AnimalVoicesNews: http://groups-beta.google.com/group/AnimalVoicesNews
