UPDATE: Complaint filed alleging auction neglected and abused animals during sweltering summer heat

CURRENT STATUS: Criminal complaint filed and awaiting decision by the District Attorney; complaint filed with Tripadvisor, listing removed from website

February 27, 2025

Our letter to Tripadvisor prompted the travel planning company to remove their listing for Root’s Country Market and Auction entirely, as Graystone’s live animal sales violate Tripadvisor’s listing guidelines.

February 25, 2025

We submitted a letter to Tripadvisor imploring them to update their animal welfare policy, given that the host of Graystone’s weekly auction, Root’s Country Market & Auction, is currently identified as an attraction that meets Tripadvisor’s animal welfare guidelines despite the horrific conditions discovered during our investigation.

December 19, 2024

Animal Partisan has filed a criminal complaint with the Lancaster County District Attorney against Graystone Small Animal Sale for the alleged neglect and abuse of the animals in its care. The complaint stems from undercover video recorded at the auction facility over two separate days this summer when temperatures exceeded 90 degrees.

Graystone Small Animal Sale, located within a country market in Manheim, Pennsylvania, holds a weekly auction for local farmers and others to sell a wide variety of small animals. Chickens, turkeys, ducks, pigeons, goats, rabbits, guinea pigs, and even parakeets are among those frequently seen packed into the wire cages that fill the small barn.

During the summer of 2024, an investigator visited the auction and documented the conditions that thousands of animals are forced to endure every week as they await being sold. Both visits revealed immense suffering among the 2,000+ animals sold each day.

On both days of the investigation, the outside temperature rose above 90 degrees, with Graystone paying little regard to the devastating effect these conditions had on its animals. While the barn was equipped with fans, many were turned off or broken. Cages were occasionally placed in direct sunlight, giving the animals inside nowhere to escape the dangerous heat. Many of the clearly suffering animals appeared to be without water.

Because of these conditions, many animals exhibited symptoms of severe heat stress. Birds were lethargic and panted heavily, attempting but unable to spread their wings due to the close confines of their cages. Rabbits huddled together, trying to escape the sun that flooded the outer parts of the barn. They took shallow, rapid breaths, while some fell to their sides, desperately trying to right themselves between convulsions.

Approximately 15 chickens, ducks, and rabbits died, apparently succumbing to the heat across both days of the investigation. Graystone staff were present in the barn and appeared to make little attempt to provide these animals with the critical veterinary care they required. Some of the deceased were left in their enclosures alongside their living cage mates for extended periods of time before being callously tossed into trash bags or boxes, treated only as merchandise that was no longer fit for sale.

Rapidly rising temperatures were not the only cause of suffering observed by the investigator. Adding to the animals’ distress was the callous lack of space they were afforded. Chickens and ducks resorted to stepping on one another to move around the tight cages that, more often than not, prohibited them from standing comfortably and denied them the ability to spread their wings and exhibit other natural behaviors. These inadequate cages were teeming with fecal matter, feathers, and, on occasion, blood. Not only are these conditions harmful to animals, they provide the perfect breeding ground for viruses like avian flu, which has already led to the deaths of over 4.5 million farmed birds in Pennsylvania since 2022.

In addition to the pervasive disregard of the animals as described above, severe physical mistreatment of animals was frequently observed. Rabbits, known for having fragile spines, were roughly grabbed by their backs, thrown into cages, and even dropped on the concrete floor of the barn. Birds were carried by their wings, yanked out of cages by their legs, and forcefully shoved into even smaller travel crates, sometimes having their wings smashed between the cage doors or their feathers pulled out in the process.

Animal Partisan’s complaint asserts that incidents documented on June 18th and July 9th, 2024, represent both animal neglect and animal cruelty as defined by Pennsylvania Law. The complaint requests that the Lancaster County District Attorney file nine animal neglect and six animal cruelty misdemeanor charges against Graystone and seek the maximum fine of $5,000 for each charge.

The nearly 1.5-hour long video submitted to the District Attorney’s office in support of our allegations of animal neglect and abuse can be found HERE.

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