Nearly five hundred live goats and sheep were found trampled, hungry and unable to walk. Others were stuck in mud and feces up to their necks — and that’s not all.
“We found a number of dead baby carcasses that had been what appeared to be stomped down and killed. There were rats,” said Abigail Avery, shelter manager at the Adams County SPCA.
Avery says they were tipped off Saturday afternoon by plumbers who left the Biglerville home — horrified by what they saw. She immediately obtained a search warrant and armed with a team of workers, volunteers and state police — went up that same evening.
“When we walked around to survey the scene, I was quite shocked to see the dead ones in with the live ones. He also had a compost pile where he was composting the dead ones. When we shined our flashlights on it. There had to be hundreds of dead ones in there. You could see bones all throughout the pile,” added Avery.
She also says many of them were suffering from arthritis and struggling to walk.
“Their feet basically they need to be trimmed, same as a horse. Their hooves need to be cut back, and they’re not being cut back and they’re growing and when a goat’s hooves grows what happens is they start walking, it be like walking on your wrist.”
This is the second time in three years the Adams County SPCA has had to file charges against George Baldwin and they’re worried it will happen again. So they took thirty-five goats and sheep — the ones that needed the most care. But on Monday, that number increased to thirty-seven. SPCA workers got a surprise — two baby kids were born.
All of the animals have required medical care. The shelter’s vet says this is the worst he’s ever seen in his 30-year career. FOX43 visited Baldwin’s home on Doug Hill Road Tuesday afternoon but there was no answer. The SPCA plans to request custody of all the animals this week, so not a single one has to suffer any longer.
(FOX43.com - Sep 9, 2014)
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