I’ve seen some Amish horses on their farms, and their horses now trot by our farm a dozen times a day.
They are coming to our town in substantial numbers, and they are most welcome. I see they need some support and defending.
In this vast and complex world, we are told there are only two ways to think.
In an era of climate change, overdevelopment, bulldozed habitats, work with people means survival to many animals like the big and strong horses of the Amish. It’s too late to save the elephants. Their lives were upended, and in so many cases, ended by the movement that claims to be protected them.
Millions of Americans now believe that Bill Gates and Dr. Fauci have conspired to implant computer chips in the bodies and brains of people who get the Covid vaccine.
Stoltzfus 40 Doberman pinschers and Rottweilers, which are housed in a modern metal-clad building, scampered about their caged pens and barked ferociously.
The Amish have previously had scrapes with the outside world when the biblical laws that govern their lives clashed with local zoning or building codes, but these plain-living, gentle people have never been accused of anything that goes so much against their reputation as animal cruelty.
Last year, Bougher said dog wardens in several southeastern counties closed down about 30 commercial kennels, including many Amish ones, when the owners refused to comply with state kennel laws.
But no matter how much Stoltzfus and others adjust their large-scale breeding practices, they will never appease people like Dotsie Keith, who raises Dalmatians in her Bucks County kitchen.
Private agencies like the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals have primary responsibility for enforcing the states anti-cruelty laws. They are understaffed, and they cannot inspect a kennel without the owners permission. To obtain a search warrant, the agent must show a judge probable cause.
Why do Amish run puppy mills?
Dog auctions are held for several reasons. A commercial breeder may be going out of business and wants to sell all of his breeding stock, or a breeder may be interested in culling old breeding stock and purchasing younger, more fertile breeding dogs.
Justice for Amish girl impregnated by brothers; survivors talk sexual abuse in Amish community
I run into Amish dog breeders almost every day here in Lancaster County. On this blog I usually contend that allegations of animal abuse in what are termed ‘puppy mills’ are overblown. I’m still getting a feel for it, and will admit I do feel sorry at times to see dogs kept caged. At the same time I don’t know that I’d go so far to allege abuse on the breeders who seem to generally have healthy, energetic animals.
One reader of this blog last week posted a thought-provoking letter on an incident of abuse which the reader recently encountered in southern Lancaster County. I’m posting it and my response below. If you have any comments, feedback or have experienced similar situations, please chime in.