By Michael Weisser
Contributing Writer
On Oct. 30, Ephraim Stoltzfus surrendered to the Berks County Sheriff’s Office for violating Domestic Animal Laws.
Stoltzfus, having received nine previous citations, transported thousands of sheep and goats over state lines without proper documentation of where they came from and their transportation.
The first and primary charge stipulated that on Sept. 11, Stoltzfus transported 46 sheep he bought from “Ken Guidon.” No contact information was listed. Between July 1 and Aug. 19, 118 sheep, goats and cattle were sold to various slaughter houses without any information of where they came from.
The second charge was for lack of identification for his sheep and goats on 10 different occasions. The most serious of these was on Sept. 15 when Stoltzfus bought and resold 1,000 castrated male goats and paid for their transportation from Texas to Harrisburg, Pa.
The third charge was that Stoltzfus transported animals into Pennsylvania without their necessary health certificates.
The Department of Agriculture is very concerned about the “traceability of thousands of animals” that Stoltzfus transported, bought and/or sold.