Anyone who’s spent a chunk of time inside the Ohio Dog Auction in Farmerstown isn’t likely to shake the experience soon. Located in a barn right in the gut of Amish country, the site is where dog breeders and puppy mill barons from all over the country east of the Mississippi come to hock their wares — the wares in question being puppies. A lot of them. Cute, adorable pups, looking straight off the Hallmark card, jammed into cages stacked to the ceiling.
That mash-up of cuddly animals and confining circumstances is the reason more than one critic has called auctions cruel and unusual. As we wrote in a 2010 feature, the auction was ground zero for the controversy surrounding Amish dog breeders. For the last two years, activists have regularly picketed the events, and there’s been a healthy push to ban the auctions outright through a ballot vote.
This article appears in Jan 4-10, 2012.
I have NO respect for any Amish involved in puppy mills. We are struggling as well due to the economy, yet we are not doing anything that would hurt another living creature. They should be ashamed. With all their religious hubbub, you’d think they’d know better. Dogs are God’s creatures and they’ll pay for the wrongs they do to them.
The Amish treat their animals no better than we treat a piece of furniture or appliance. Dogs or any other animal, and mostly horses are worked till they fall down. And then they are sold to meat markets when they are lame. If you want proof go to a Sugarcreek auction and take a look at the legs on the draft horses that go through the auction. If they need the money let them sell some of their land.
First the Amish hair cutting thing and now the puppy abuse thing. They might need a good PR company or they will loose money as a result of a negative image. They can clean up their act if they go back to the principles of forgiveness and respect for other lives. The dominant males of the Amish have gone down hill and try to rule others with an iron fist. Being a closed society they get away with a lot of (trail) balogney. The male-ego always fucks things up when combined with money grabbing pricks. It is kind of good to know that the Amish might be just as fucked up as the rest of us.
And could we PLEASE stop spouting propaganda against an entire religion for the acts of a few members. The Amish have a much different view of animals and that is their RIGHT under the U.S. Constitution.
Elizabeth: We have cruelty laws throughout the United States. The U.S. Constitution gives no one the right to treat animals cruelly. Your statement “The Amish have a much different view of animals and that is their RIGHT under the U.S. Constitution” verges on the absurd. I take it you either know nothing about puppy mills or you don’t give a damn about dogs being kept in small cages in dark barns their entire lives without grooming, kindness, proper vet care, exercise and at the end being killed because they are too old to reproduce. Picture yourself living in a closet your entire life. People like you do not make the world a better place.
I don’t agree with Elizabeth’s comments on anyone having a “right” to treat animals with cruelty because of religious beliefs, but unfortunately, owning and running these large scale dog breeding businesses is completely legal. And the requirements for how the animals are treated are incredibly minimal. Also, USDA inspectors are few and far between, and they only have jurisdiction over the breeders who sell puppies to stores. The breeders who sell puppies online don’t even have to be licensed, as of this time. The people who run these businesses are making shitloads of money at the expense of the breeding dogs, who live horrible lives, entirely in cages, no veterinary care, garbage for food, and often, those who buy the puppies are victims as well, buying a sickly puppy that rarely live to be two years old.
Elizabeth Turner Brinkley, I’m absolutely horrified at the things I can find on you, just for google your name! Full of hateful garbage and toxic talk…FYI in the law, willful blindness is deliberate attempt to remain ignorant about facts which might make someone liable! There is a lot about animals in our laws, and the ignorant and self centered people like you- will be upheld to these law!