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CAFOs, or Confined Animal Feeding Operations, cause a great deal of pollution, even under the best circumstances. They are also unspeakably cruel for the animals confined in them. In the Lititz area, however, farms run under conditions that DO NOT MEET regulatory standards for containment of manure are contributing a significant amount of pollution to the environment, affecting the ground water and ultimately, the drinking water, in Lititz and surrounding townships.

As an example, click here to read a testing report and DEP field narrative report on Kreider Farms. In addition to the results of the chemical tests, the narrative cites manure escaping containment and making its way into the watershed, right before the eyes of the DEP personnel: "It seemed the ground was too saturated and the manure ran down to the low point in their field, collected until it began to run through the neighbors' field, collected at a spot and then ran off, discharging into the swale and ultimately the creek." <read the entire report>

Kreider admits to the report's findings, on Page 6 of the report: "E. On August 17th, 2004 Kreider dicharged manure into Chiques Creek, a water of the Commonwealth. The manure was over applied by spray irrigation and runoff drained into the stream." If you then view Page 7, you see that Kreider admits to the events and their illegality: "Kreider agrees that the findings in paragraphs A through H are true and correct,,," <read the entire report>

Read further on this page, and view the photographic evidence to find out more about the farms involved in creating the pollution (Lexington Acres, owned and operated by Dale Rohrer, and nearby Kreider Farms), and the neighboring farms that make use of the manure, contributing to the problem of animal waste in the watershed. You'll discover how their operations put the public's health at risk, and about the unspeakable conditions under which thousands of pigs (and at Kreider farms, cows and chickens as well) are forced to live.

Not sure what a "factory farm" is? Click here to find out more. The site includes information from both animal advocacy sources AND the US government, providing, as a result, a very accurate picture of the way factory farms operate and how they're a threat to human health, the environment, and a horrible example of humans' capacity for cruelty. Here's an excerpt from a USDA report on CAFOs (factory farms):

"...CAFOs have routinely avoided the costs of proper manure handling and application by dumping excessive amounts of manure on fields closest to their operations. This creates both air and water pollution that levies real costs on the rural residents who live around CAFOs.  This study is important because it puts a number on the costs CAFOs have been shifting to rural communities every year by not spreading their manure on enough land," (a quote from Dr. William J. Weida, noted rural economist)
 
Map published by Lancaster Newspapers (we gratefully reproduce it here), showing location of the farms and the affected watershed:
Note that the Kreider Farm marker was added to and is not part of the original LNP map.
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Seepage through the concrete blocks at Rohrer's Lexington Acres farm -- walls that should have been solid concrete, to meet regulatory standards, but were not built to be "liquid tight", as you can see below. Millions of gallons of manure are stored on this site, and while the amount that has seeped through these walls into the watershed is unknown, the contained manure has also been spread on neighboring farmland as fertilizer, increasing the amount of nitrates and other toxins added to the ground soil and ground water. Photo taken by DEP (Department of Environmental Protection) personnel at Lexington Acres.
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The following three pictures show the gestation and farrowing enclosures built to confine the pigs. Pigs spend their whole lives in a space that's so narrow, they can't even turn around. This drives these intelligent animals -- smarter than dogs, and equal to some primates -- literally insane. Factory farm animals are abused from birth through death on (CAFOs) like Lexington Acres and nearby Kreider Farms. If you imagined that farm animals lead pleasant, natural lives, you are among the millions who are sadly mistaken on this issue. The threat to human safety and health is only part of the problem with factory farming -- animals do not belong in factories -- they have the same abilities to feel pain and terror that humans do. There is no excuse -- biblical, scientific, or based on "well, this is the cheapest way to feed all the people who like bacon!" -- for this kind of abuse. None.
In winter, the pigs' skin can freeze to these metal bars, and is then ripped off when the pigs are extracted from the crates. Medical care is not provided, as the animals' suffering is not a concern to the CAFO farmer, who sees them as cuts of meat and money in the bank, not as animals with brains, hearts, and the ability to feel excruciating pain.
 
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Confined, all day, every day, with no room to turn around or sit. These crates have been banned in Florida, Arizona, and Colorado. California is currently considering the same ban, extending to the confinement conditions of cows and chickens, too. Pennsylvania needs to be on the leading edge of preventing animal cruelty, not in the news and on the editorial pages as a place where animals are routinely abused.
 
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These little piggies live in a hell we can only imagine. The sow will spend her whole life pregnant or nursing, and these piglets will be removed from their mother within days, their tails chopped off and their ears deeply notched (both without anesthesia or follow-up medical care), and then at about 6 months old, they'll be killed, bleeding to death while still conscious. When the sow becomes too sick or too old to have any more babies, she, too, will be brutally slaughtered. Factory farms do NOT take the time to render animals unconscious before killing them. The concept of humane slaughter is a MYTH.
 
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