There's nothing credible about the footage the activists show. The man had the motive, the means and the opportunity to contribute to and perhaps create the deplorable conditions in which those chickens lived. Objectivity? ZERO! Why are our courts and we the public even giving this group the time of day? This conflict of interest ought to discredit the videotaped evidence with any thinking judge.
To be very specific, his job was to remove the dead chickens, not videotape them. Removal is what was happening in the other sets of houses where actual farmers were caring for the chickens. (It's in Espenshade's interest to keep the casualty counts down and they keep a daily record for that purpose) However, to drum up support for his cause as an activist, it was in his interest to walk by that dead chicken day after day and tell us how bad conditions are in there.

Perhaps activism pays more than being a chicken farmer because doing his job would have been more consistant with his stance against cruelty to animals. And we have videotaped evidence that he didn't do his job.

Riiiight. Go join the other talkback board where everyone thinks Floyd Landis is innocent.

You'll not be flamed by me because I know exactly what you're talking about. I grew up in Manhole and it was common knowledge. In fact, I posted something simliar about 6 months ago on a different thread.

the reason these greedy animal abusers will never be prosecuted is because the authorities will do everything they can to avoid tarnishing the image of bucolic Lancaster County. It's such a shame. I bet if people knew what was really going on in those chickenhouses, they'd never eat chicken or eggs again.

And I believe the Krieders were nice enough to set them up in old chickenhouses rather than just a plain old barn. How nice of them.