Gene Baur has been on a crusade for more than two decades to make sure sick farm animals do not end up in the human food supply.

His odyssey has taken him to Washington, D.C., but it began at the former Lancaster Stockyards.

The president and co-founder of Farm Sanctuary rescued a sheep, later named "Hilda," from a pile of dead animals at the stockyards in 1986.

That began the animal protection group's national campaign to stop the slaughter and processing for human consumption of "downed animals," or livestock that can no longer walk.

On Saturday, Farm Sanctuary won a major battle in eliminating "downers" from the food supply when U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced a final rule to amend federal meat inspection regulations, requiring a complete ban on the slaughter of cattle that become "non-ambulatory disabled" at any point.

Some downers are only injured, but critics say others have illnesses, such as mad cow disease, that could contaminate the food supply.

Baur said the practices he saw at Lancaster Stockyards — once hailed as the "largest stockyards east of Chicago" but now a bare wasteland — still occur at other stockyards and meatpacking plants around the country. He alleged the industry has promised not to use downed animals but puts them in the food supply anyway.

"(Animals) shouldn't be left to suffer. They shouldn't be dragged onto trucks and taken to slaughter, which were the common practices," Baur said. "This is an industry that's trying to sell diseased animals to consumers and doesn't want inspectors to be there overseeing the operation. It's quite dishonorable."

'Downer' legislation

The rule adopted by the USDA amends federal meat inspection regulations to require that all downer cattle, including those that become disabled after passing a pre-slaughter inspection, be condemned and properly disposed of without entering the food supply.

In addition, the rule requires meat processing plants to notify inspectors of all downers.

Farm Sanctuary filed a lawsuit against the USDA in 2001, seeking an end to the processing and packaging of meat from downed cattle for human consumption. The USDA had taken the position that diseased animals are appropriate to use for food, Baur said.

It wasn't until 2003 that the USDA started looking seriously at downers as a threat to the food supply, Baur said. That year, inspectors found a downed cow at a slaughterhouse in Washington State infected with mad cow disease. The animal had already been slaughtered.

A week later the USDA announced an interim policy banning the use of downed cattle, and in 2007, the policy was made permanent.

However, Baur said, a loophole allowed for cows that became downers after passing the pre-slaughter inspection to be re-inspected and put back into the food supply.

Saturday's policy change "slammed the door" on the loophole, Baur said.

A past legacy

Lancaster Stockyards was once among the largest employers in the county. In the 1940s, it processed more than half a million head of cattle a year.

As late as 1996, the stockyards auctioned 100,000 head of cattle. But after the largest dealer, Dunlap & Sons, closed in 1999, only a few traders remained, and the facility quickly deteriorated.

All that remains of the 21-acre stockyards along Marshall Avenue is a handful of dilapidated buildings and a field strewn with pulverized concrete.

A broken water cooler, discarded lawnmower tires, a full-sized blue sailboat and a leather sofa moldering in the winter weather all sit on the property, with rat traps lining the perimeter fence. The cinder block office building sits empty, its door hanging off the hinges.

Baur said Farm Sanctuary chose the stockyards as its poster child for the no-downer campaign in 1986 because of its size and the proximity to Wilmington, Del., where the advocacy group then had its headquarters.

Farm Sanctuary volunteers were able to visit the site regularly, Baur said, documenting conditions and taking rescued animals to a farm in Avondale.

Baur said volunteers routinely found stockyard animals abandoned to suffer for hours or days in alleyways, loading docks and pens. They even discovered living animals covered in maggots in the dead animal pile.

In 1988, Farm Sanctuary organized a massive protest outside the stockyards' annual Memorial Day sale. At the time, it was considered one of the largest animal-rights protests ever.

Baur said a short time later the stockyards agreed to let Farm Sanctuary volunteers know about any animals that needed to be euthanized, and they became the first stockyards in the country to put a voluntary policy in place to euthanize downer animals.

However, Baur said, the stockyards routinely ignored its own policy. In 1993, Farm Sanctuary helped obtain the conviction of Lancaster Stockyards for the mistreatment of a downer animal, the first-ever such conviction of a U.S. stockyard.

Current conditions

Today, Farm Sanctuary has turned its attention to other stockyards and meat processing plants around the country, including New Holland Sales Stables.

Baur said in the last few years animals have been left to die in trash cans at the New Holland site and the livestock sales auction has been "slow to do what needs to be done."

Keith Mohler, a Farm Sanctuary volunteer, has been urging representatives of New Holland Sales Stables to adopt a policy to properly dispose of downed animals.

On Dec. 17, New Holland owner David Cobb and an employee were charged by a Humane League of Lancaster County humane enforcement officer with animal cruelty for allegedly allowing a live cow with a bullet in its head to lie for hours on a pile of dead animals. The animal had to be shot again after it was found by the officer.

Cobb said there have been issues at livestock sales regarding the proper way to euthanize downed animals.

However, for at least the past year, the livestock auction has withdrawn all downer animals from sales and slaughter, Cobb said, so the new USDA rule won't have any effect on operations.

"That's the policy we've had for ages and as far as I know at all slaughter plants," Cobb said.

Baur said there have not been enough inspectors at meat processing plants in the past, and it has been easy for slaughterhouses to accept downed cows.

At least one slaughterhouse in southern California was found to be accepting downed cows in 2008, leading to the largest beef recall in U.S. history.

Baur said he is still a little nervous about the inspection process but thinks the 2008 incident was enough to get the attention of the USDA, which had tended to look the other way in the past.

The next step for Farm Sanctuary, Baur said, is to eliminate all downed animals from being used for meat. Right now downer pigs, goats and sheep may be slaughtered.

"There should be a clear policy against allowing any downed animals in the food supply, and this is for human health as well as animal welfare concerns," Baur said.

E-mail: myoder@lnpnews.com