H. Glenn Esbenshade and Jay Musser d/b/a Esbenshade Farms

Battery Egg Producer Charged with Animal Cruelty

Mount Joy, PA

January 10, 2006

On January 9th, a Pennsylvania Humane Officer working with the Humane Society of the United States filed criminal animal cruelty charges against the Owner and Manager of Esbenshade Farms, an egg factory farm.  The charges allege that the two individuals are responsible for keeping laying hens in cruel and inhumane conditions.

The charges stem from videotape evidence provided by Compassion Over Killing based in Washington, D.C.  The video shows deplorable conditions in a facility that confines approximately 600,000 laying hens in decrepit battery cages. The video also shows birds impaled on cage wires, others trapped amid decomposing corpses, unable to reach food or water and others left on the floor to slowly die.

                            

birds beek caught on wire             birds leg caught on cage                 birds wing caught in cage               6 shed housing 600,000 hens         birds covered in feces                    Dead hens collected daily

Photo's courtesy of Compassion Over Killing

After reviewing the videotape and interviewing an eyewitness, Pennsylvania Humane Officer Johnna Seeton filed cruelty charges in the Magisterial District Court in Lancaster County.  The evidence documents repeated violations of the state’s animal cruelty law, which prohibits neglect, abandonment and other abuses. 

Working with attorneys from The HSUS and local attorneys in Pennsylvania, Seeton filed 35 separate criminal counts against each of the two defendants.  The owner and manager could face up to a $750 fine for each count of cruelty that is alleged, possible forfeiture of the neglected animals and jail time.

Conditions at most battery-cage egg facilities are inherently inhumane, confining laying hens in barren, wire battery cages restricting the birds to the point where they do not have room to spread their wings.

Unlike 80% of U.S. egg producers, Esbenshade does not participate in the egg industry’s voluntary animal welfare program.  Though this program still allows many cruelties, including intensively confining birds in cages too over-crowded to allow the birds to move, it sets forth the barest of minimum guidelines for battery-cage factory farms.

The charges filed against Esbenshade mark the second time in 6 months that state authorities have filed cruelty charges against a battery egg company.  In July 2005, MOARK, the country’s third-largest egg producer was videotaped throwing hundreds of live hens into a trash dumpster at its Neosho, Missouri facility.  Criminal animal cruelty charges were filed against MOARK at the request of The HSUS through a prosecuting attorney in Newton County, Missouri.  The charges were eventually dropped after MOARK agreed to donate $100,000 to a local humane society and to improve its spent hen slaughter practices.  

Update August 7, 2006:

On Monday, August 7th, a hearing into animal cruelty charges at one of the state’s largest egg farms ended inconclusively as attorneys for both sides stated they were trying to reach a settlement.

Elizabethtown District Judge James F Duncan heard about 5-1/2 hours of testimony from two of four witnesses the prosecution planned to present.  The attorneys for both sides spent more than an hour in private conference with their clients.  After the hearing, neither side’s attorneys would state why they chose to negotiate a settlement instead of continuing with the trial.  Chris Patterson, an attorney for the defense stated that all attorneys are willing to negotiate.  Any agreement would have to be approved by Judge Duncan.

The trial testimony of Esbenshade Farm’s Manager and Chief Executive focused on claims that birds were housed in cruel conditions, with key evidence being a secretly shot video that showed deteriorating cages and neglected birds at the farm in Mount Joy.  A prosecution expert testified that there were many birds both live and dead that were trapped on parts of the cages at the farm last year.  Retired Poultry Science Professor from the University of Guelph in Ontario, Ian Duncan, described the contents of the 19-minute video.  He stated the video showed too many birds trapped in dangerous conditions for it to have been fabricated.

H. Glenn Esbenshade, Owner and Jay Musser, Manager, were charged by a Humane Society Police Officer with summary offenses after she obtained the video.  The defense stated the state’s animal cruelty law cannot be enforced against what it maintains is a ‘normal agricultural operation’.

John Brothers, who made the video, testified he saw as many as nine chickens in a single cage and that broken cage wires impaled both dead and living birds. Attorneys for the prosecution played the video for Judge Duncan and the defense but in a manner that members of the public were unable to see the screen.  Brothers testified that he reported the conditions to Musser but that Musser responded that the cages were 25 years old.  On cross-examination, defense attorney Michael T Winters asked Brothers on several occasions if caring for the chickens that were injured or stuck on broken parts of the cages was among his responsibilities at the farm. Brothers replied that it was never conveyed to him that he was in charge of the health of the birds.

Esbenshade read a written statement after the hearing of the testimony presented by the prosecution that stated Esbenshade Farms always had been and would continue to be dedicated to food quality, safety, animal welfare and environmental standards based on industry science standards.

The court case will continue on March 1, 2007

Reference:

The Humane Society of the United States

Centre Daily Times