The weekly sale at the Fallon Livestock Exchange in Nevada has a sordid history of selling off wild horses and intimidating any rescues that attempt to bid against the local kill buyer, Zena Quillan. Investigators returned to this sale to determine if conditions had changed since our last visit.
AA investigators arrived at the sale on Tuesday, 7/19/16 at 11:00 a.m. Large signs were seen along the pen area warning auction visitors to stay out of the pens. Even though it was already 82 degrees Fahrenheit and temperatures continued to climb well into the 90’s throughout the afternoon, there was no shelter from the sun for most of the cattle, sheep, and a lone horse in the outside pens.
The sheep, goats, and pigs were sold at 12:30 p.m. At 12:50 p.m., investigators watched as auction workers began moving cattle to the ring via horseback. The area was then hosed down with water to keep the dust down.
The cattle sale started at 1:00 p.m. The animals were moved to the ring by two auction employees standing on a catwalk using paddles and electric prods.
Towering over the animals, the workers used the electric prods quite extensively to move the animals through the chute into the auction ring.
The sale then ended at 2:20 p.m. with the one horse observed earlier outside. The horse was purchased by a private home.
Animals’ Angels will continue to monitor this auction and report all violations. In addition, we will strongly urge auction management to restrict the use of electric prods by its employees, providing training materials on the humane handling of animals if necessary.