Plumstead is preparing to file an injunction against slaughterhouse Kingdom Provisions on Durham Road, the subject of numerous complaints from neighbors and repeated pleas for the township to intervene on their behalf.
For more than a year, residents have been reporting a sickening stench of dead animals emanating from the property and, in one case, puddles of blood appearing on a neighbor’s driveway that were believed to be runoff from the slaughterhouse.
Residents also say they’ve seen a growing number of turkey vultures on and near their properties, one of which reportedly dropped a scrap it was eating on a neighbor’s property, where the family dog ate it and became very ill.
But the injunction, according to assistant Plumstead manager and zoning officer Steve Hicks, stems from alleged activity on a conservation easement.
“...(W)hile the business can operate on the property, the fields on the property may only be used for agricultural purposes, otherwise they must remain undisturbed,” Hicks wrote Friday in an email to the Herald. “Due to the land disturbance on the portion of the property that makes up the Conservation Easement, the Plumstead Board of Supervisors, at their June 12th meeting, authorized the Township Solicitor to file an injunction on the property.”
Township solicitor Jonathan J. Reiss, of Perkasie’s Grim Biehn & Thatcher, explained Friday that the injunction, which he did not believe had been filed yet, won’t immediately halt operations at Kingdom Provisions.
After the filing, Kingdom Provisions would have time to answer the complaint. Meanwhile the court would schedule a hearing on the petition requesting the injunction.
“Operations may continue until the Court issues an injunction,” Reiss explained in an email.
If the injunction is ignored, the township could ask the court to find the business in contempt and it’d have to meet certain requirements to have the contempt of court purged, Reiss added.
Attorney John A. VanLuvanee, of Eastburn & Gray P.C., in Doylestown, represents Kingdom Provisions. He declined to comment on the injunction request Friday since he hadn’t seen it yet.
Kingdom Provisions has been the subject of numerous complaints since it took over the site in late 2022 or early 2023 from Gouldey Meats, which operated a slaughterhouse there for many years.
Last summer, residents petitioned the township to take action to address the pervasive odor that reportedly extended for miles around the facility and prompted concerns over the potential for well water contamination.
Then, in October, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, safety inspectors witnessed what they called “a violation of the humane slaughter requirements” of the Federal Meat Inspection Act and the Humane Methods of Slaughter Act, which resulted in withholding of the federal marks of inspection. It also put a stop to the assignment of government inspectors to the business.
The following month, after reviewing the USDA report, PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) called on the Bucks County District Attorney’s Office to investigate Kingdom Provisions criminally, saying the report’s claims constituted cruelty to animals.
Hicks recently told the residents that, in May, the township took part in a series of lengthy meetings that included representatives of the Bucks County commissioners, planning commission, health department, conservation district, the USDA, the Pennsylvania departments of environmental protection, and agriculture as well as the Heritage Conservancy.
According to an email obtained by the Herald, Hicks suggested to residents that the various entities at the meeting were reviewing options within their respective jurisdictions.
“So, each organization has begun enforcement procedures for the violations that each entity can legally enforce,” Hicks wrote in an email sent on June 11, the day before the supervisors voted to file for an injunction.
Join our readers whose generous donations are making it possible for you to read our news coverage. Help keep local journalism alive and our community strong. Donate today.
