Lancaster Stockyards Fades into History

After its founding in the late 1800s, Lancaster Stockyards became the largest stockyard east of Chicago. Animals from across the U.S., including western states like Montana and Texas, were brought here first by train, then by truck and offered for sale. Throughout the 20th century, Lancaster Stockyards played a major role setting prices and trends in the livestock marketing business.

When Farm Sanctuary was founded in 1986, Lancaster Stockyards was our first major campaign target. We spent countless hours documenting the inhumane treatment of animals, especially downed animals – those too sick even to stand – at the stockyard. Sick and debilitated animals were often left to linger and die in holding pens or alley ways. We did everything we could to relieve their pain and rescued many pigs, calves, goats, and sheep, including Hilda, who had been discarded on the dead pile out back.

Although we could spare some animals from cruel transport or a slow agonizing death by rescuing them, we also realized that it was not possible to rescue every suffering animal in need, so we sought to prevent the problem in the first place. We launched a campaign seeking to prevent the stockyard from accepting and selling downed animals, and after several years, which included a major public demonstration and various exposés of intolerable conditions, Lancaster stockyards became the first stockyard in the U.S. to respond, enacting a “no downer” policy in response to humane concerns.

Lancaster Stockyard’s voluntary no downer policy represented a significant victory, and it eliminated untold suffering by preventing downed animals from being discarded at the stockyard. Prior to this, the stockyard had routinely been used as a dumping ground for sick and diseased animals. Accepting and selling these sick animals who were on the verge of death was considered to be a service to customers who were also selling healthier animals. However, over time, adherence to the “no downer” policy weakened, and bad habits returned. As long as businesses consider animals to be commodities rather than sentient creatures with individual emotions and needs, compassion falls behind economic concerns.

Eventually, we succeeded in our efforts to have Lancaster Stockyards prosecuted for cruelty to animals after it failed to abide by its own “no downer” policy. A weak cow at the stockyard had fallen and could not get up, and stockyard officials refused to provide her with veterinary care or euthanize her. So, we called a veterinarian. After examining the cow and seeing her suffering, the veterinarian determined that she was not likely to recover, and he euthanized her. As a result, Lancaster Stockyards became the first U.S. stockyard to be convicted of cruelty to animals. We recently visited Lancaster Stockyards, and with so many painful memories, it was more than a little satisfying to see it closed down, no longer a terminal market for animals on their way to slaughter. Large sections of the roof had collapsed, while corrals and alleyways were being dismantled. Grass was breaking cracks of the cement alleyways, and vines were growing over the buildings.

The auction ring, where millions of animals had been given numbers and sold to the highest bidder, was in disarray. Old furniture and other garbage was now being dumped on the cement slab behind the stockyard where the dead pile used to be, where we found Hilda and other animals discarded like trash.The stockyard was quiet, but its wicked past as a trading post for countless animals was eerily palpable. In one pen, remains were left behind – bones strewn about from one of the last animals left to suffer.

The stockyard where we had witnessed so much misery and where Farm Sanctuary commenced our efforts to combat the cruelty and injustice of factory farming was literally falling apart. There are many factors contributing to the demise of Lancaster Stockyards, but it is possible that our efforts, and those of so many activists through the years, played a role.

We don’t know what is planned for the 23 acres that had been Lancaster Stockyards, but hopefully, it won’t turn into another shopping mall with fast food restaurants. We would like nothing more than to see its transformation into a community garden or a farmers market, that allows consumers to be provided healthful, locally grown produce, and for farmers to make a reasonable and sustainable living – cruelty free.

Please check out the video
“Lancaster Stockyards: Then and Now”.

Please click here for more history of Lancaster Stockyards.