Investigators arrived in New Holland, PA at 9:00am. At the local hotel known to be frequented by horse traders and kill buyers, they noticed two trucks with Tennessee plates, pulling large empty stock trailers. Also parked in the same lot, there was the tractor trailer of known horse trader/broker Cranbury Sales Stables from New Jersey. At the auction, investigators started their inspection at the sheep and goat barn. Again, multiple dead animals were found inside the pen area. A dead sheep, which appeared to have been dead for quite some time, was laying in one of the crowded large pens in the back. Two baby goats had been dumped in front of the same pen.
When investigators entered the horse barn, they immediately noticed that an unusually large group of “loose” horses (approx. 20) had been place together in a pen. They all appeared to be “kill buyer prospects” and many of them had neglected hooves and manes and smaller, fresh injuries on their legs (likely from transport). Several held their heads low and looked very tired. It is suspected that this group had been brought up from the Knoxville auction in Tennessee by the Tennessee trucks spotted earlier and that whoever bought the horses cheap on Saturday in Knoxville was intending to make a quick profit by reselling them at New Holland.
It seemed that the horse traders knew that there would be a lot of horses available at this particular sale – Cranbury Sales Stables brought both of their tractor trailers as well as their pick-up trucks and stock trailers. Also in attendance were Rotz Livestock and Cedar Ridge Farm. Cedar Ridge Farm was spotted all the way in the back of the sheep barn showing a small pony tied up to their stock trailer to two females. The pony was then loaded into the back of the trailer.
When investigators returned to the horse barn to take another look at the horses offered for sale, they were confronted by a visually upset Dr. Holt, New Holland’s auction veterinarian. Referring to Animals’ Angels last report about him and New Holland Auction, he stated that it “would not help Animals’ Angels to throw him under the bus” and that there would be “absolutely no more cooperation”. He then stormed off, leaving behind a very confused investigator since there has never been any “cooperation” between Animals’ Angels and Dr. Holt.
Any attempts to get him to help improve the animal welfare at the sale by facilitating meetings with sales management to set up proper protocols/training for employees/accountability for neglect have been ignored. We certainly hope that he was not referring to him euthanizing suffering animals after being asked to do so by Animals’ Angels and local law enforcement, as this is his legal and moral obligation as a veterinarian. Animals’ Angels will keep a very close eye on this development and his behavior if another emergency situation arises.