USA | New Holland - Pennsylvania | Hoover Sale Barn | Horsemeat import
[Translate to English:] Pferd mit fortgeschrittener Druseninfektion.
[Translate to English:] Der Futtertrog im Gehege der Schlachtpferde ist leer.
[Translate to English:] Einige Pferde sind eng aneinander gereiht und haben keinerlei Bewegungsfreiheit.
[Translate to English:] Pferd mit ernster Verletzung am rechten Hinterbein.
[Translate to English:] Dieses Pferd steht tief im Schlamm und Exkrementen.
When we arrive at the Hoover Sale Barn in New Holland at 9:30, the auction is already extremely busy. With approximately 450 horses for sale, the small stable is filled practically past its limit and many pens are overcrowded. The more valuable horses are tethered to overhead beams from both sides of their halter, presumably in an attempt to prevent them from fighting with each other.
Outside the stable, we observe that most of the horses kept in individual pens are sick with various stages of strangles infection. One particular horse is especially bad off and appears very weak. We see a group of horses kept separate in a pen in a field. The pen is extremely muddy, has no dry areas whatsoever for the horses to stand on, and offers no shelter at all. The horses are sinking into the mud up to their fetlocks. One horse is spotted with a deep open wound on its right hind leg, which is heavily swollen.
In the back of the auction premises, we find a large group of mules and drafts kept in a field and a smaller barn. This barn is also extremely muddy and completely covered in manure. It appears to have not been cleaned out in quite a long time.
The auction starts at 9:50 with the work horses that are available for sale. Today the kill buyers pay between $100 and $375 per horse.
