May | 2008 | Kristenmomof3's Xanga Site

Many people visit Lancaster County because
they are lured by the appeal of the country of the past. Perhaps they
are looking for a slower more peaceful pace. At Zoning Hearings Amish Farmers have
stated that they have to raise dogs because they can't earn enough from
farming the land to support their families.

You can see scenes like these all over
Lancaster County. Horses pulling heavy wagons in 100
degree temperatures, horses pulling buggies in heavy traffic, horses
being whipped for not doing what they were told to do and thousands of
horses being dumped at the New Holland Horse Auction to be sold for
slaughter. These people have said time and time again that it's cheaper to
use up a horse, dump it and buy a fresh one than it is to take proper
care of the horse to begin with. The Pennsylvania Legislature and the
Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture have exempted farm animals from
the cruelty statutes.

Drive down any country road in Lancaster
County and you will see signs like these often. Dogs are viewed as a
cash crop. Ads in the news papers often state cash only. Amish and
Mennonite farmers have publically stated that dogs are livestock and
there is no difference between a dog and a cow.

Lancaster County Pennsylvania has been called the Puppymill Capital of the East Coast

Pennsylvania - the Commonwealth of Cruelty. You've Got a Friend in Pennsylvania - Unless of course you are an animal.

The dogs are kept in small wire cages
for their entire lives. They are almost never allowed out. They never
touch solid ground or grass to run and play.

Female dogs are usually bred the first
time they come into heat and are bred every heat cycle. They are bred
until their poor worn out bodies can't reproduce any longer and then
they are killed. Often they are killed by being bashed in the head with
a rock or shot. Sometimes they are sold to laboratories or dumped. This
is often by the time they reach five years old.

Dogs in puppymills are debarked often by ramming a steel rod down their throats to reputure their vocal cords.

Puppies are often taken from their
mother when they are 5 to 8 weeks old and sold to brokers who pack them
in crates for resale to pet stores all over the country.

"Aaron H. Zimmerman said it was unusual that his dogs were drinking
slimy green water in leaky cages stained with feces. 'You ought to come
visit when I have everything cleaned up.' His kennel sits behind the
horse-drawn buggy in the driveway, between the barn and the house. It
comprised fewer than a dozen wire bottom cages in poor repair. Several
inches of waste had collected under the cages. Feces hung from most
cages' wire bottoms. Much of the concrete was stained." Philadelphia
Inquirer

The Amish say they raise dogs much as they would any other
livestock, restricting the dogs to small cages and killing parents when
they are no longer productive." New York Times

"...Amos J. Stoltzfus wants to run a kennel with no more than 40
breeding dogs, an up to 80 dogs, including puppies, at any one time. He
has no plans for an area to house the dogs, but currently has a 12 x 40
foot area of open pasture enclosed by an electric fence where he keeps
the dogs. Shelter for the dogs is provided in a calf shed and behind a
carriage. There was fire in an equipment shed at the Stoltzfus' farm in
April. He housed nine cocker spaniels and a boxer in the shed and all
died in the fire. Such disregard for life mocks decency." Dog and
Kennel Magazine

Lancaster County has the highest concentration of puppy mills in the
United States. Do a google on the Amish and
puppy mills. Look at the pictures and read the newspaper articles that
come up. Nothing has changed despite attempts by Harrisburg to push
through laws.