While Hilda regained her strength, we started an investigation to determine who had abandoned her. After gathering evidence, we contacted the trucker responsible for dumping her. He admitted he had dragged her off the truck and thrown her on the pile because she was a “downer” (an animal too weak or injured to stand).

With both a personal admission and evidence of blatant cruelty and neglect, we felt confident we could convince local law enforcement authorities to prosecute — but we were wrong. They claimed “normal animal agriculture practices” were exempt from Pennsylvania anti-cruelty laws — and dumping live farm animals on “deadpiles” was considered “normal.”

Frustrated, and shocked, by the absence of any legal protection for farm animals, we intensified our investigation of the Lancaster Stockyards — and soon discovered that Hilda’s plight was not an isolated incident. Every week, animals were abandoned in filthy stockyard pens or alleyways, and left to die slowly from starvation and neglect. After documenting hundreds of instances of animal cruelty (and rescuing dozens of “downed” animals), we organized a demonstration to draw attention to the plight of animals at Lancaster Stockyards.

National and regional news stories shocked and outraged the public, and Lancaster Stockyards announced it would no longer sell downed animals and would euthanize downed animals left on the premises. As time passed, however, Lancaster Stockyards’ adherence to its voluntary “No Downer” policy became lax, and downed animals were again left to die of neglect at the stockyard. Farm Sanctuary incorporated as a humane enforcement agency in Pennsylvania, and when our humane agent discovered a cow lying on her side in a pen, down and dying, Farm Sanctuary filed cruelty charges against the stockyard for denying the animal needed veterinary care — and won. Lancaster Stockyards became the first stockyard in the U.S. to be convicted of cruelty to animals, and the case redefined what constitutes “cruelty” to farm animals under existing laws in Pennsylvania.