The investigators arrived at the auction at 1:50pm. It was a sunny afternoon with temperatures around 44 degrees Fahrenheit. They immediately noticed that the auction was not as crowded as during their October visit. The the silver pick-up truck and stock trailer of Pennsylvania kill buyer Bruce Rotz was parked prominently in front of the barn. Kill buyer Jason Sexton’s Dodge pick-up truck and trailer was parked in the back.
The tack sale started at 2:00 p.m. and the investigators entered the barn area to check on the condition of the horses. Again, there were many horses that were very thin or had overgrown, splitting hooves. Several were coughing and showed signs of an ongoing strangles infection. A bay horse (#7279) had a bleeding eye and was very afraid of the other horses in the pen. There was also an emaciated, older chestnut (#7274), severely swayback, with a cut underneath his left front leg. In one of the pens in the middle of the barn, investigators found a bay with a bleeding tumor on his eye.
All the loose horse pens had access to limited amounts of hay and water, however, the pens were extremely filthy and covered in manure. The semi of Tipton Farms with his single deck trailer was already backed up to the loading ramp. The trailer was in poor condition, there were several holes in the aluminum sides of the trailer, which puts the horses inside at great risk.
At 3:17pm, a dark colored pick-up truck from Dycus Farms in Georgia with an old, rusted stock trailer arrived. The trailer appeared very overcrowded and the 10+ horses inside were fighting for space. The truck proceeded to the back to unload and the horses were immediately moved into the “kill” pens.
The horse sale started at 4:30pm with the riding horses. Afterwards, the loose horses were sold and kill buyers Rotz, Sexton and Tipton were dividing most of them among them.