PLEASE DON'T BUY PUPPIES FROM PET SHOPS!

[Pufferpunk]

http://njministries.org/1Amish/amish.html

[J-P]

Amish = puppy mills? That is like saying Chinese ppl can't drive or Afro-American = crime.

Just ban the puppy mills period. They shouldn't point fingers at a specific group.

[Pufferpunk]

Read the whole article. It says they are in no way saying that the puppy mill business is the exclusive problem of the Amish community. I groom the dog Baby, that's mentioned farther down the page.

[J-P]

Your little guy made the news!!

I did read the entire article:
Page title: Amish and Puppy Mills
Header: The Truth About AMISH COUNTRY
Key word: Amish referenced 47 times in that article.

Sorry... despite the disclaimer that is one slanted article against that religious group.

Look at the URL: http://njministries.org/1Amish/amish.html

[Pufferpunk]

If the shoe fits...
"A simple Google search for Amish puppy mills will return thousands of hits. "
I worked for a pet shop who got their pups from them, well before any of us knew what puppy mills were.

[J-P]

yea a google search on any topic will result in 1000's of hits.

If you want to stop this stop then action ... not the religious nature.

[LilGreenPuffer]

I highly doubt that many Amish do such things. They are strongly pacifist and believe in submitting to violence before hurting something themselves.

[Pufferpunk]

Don't fool yourself. This is a HUGE business for them.

[Flutter]

We don't have any Amish in this area but we do have Mennonites. Great people but they see animals more as objects than family members.

I don't believe that it is a culture wide issue however I'd never get a pet from a pet store. Adoption from a shelter or rescue only (for mammals).

[J-P]

http://www.nopuppymillscanada.ca/

Too bad more sites don't model themselves after this one. Very responsible, no finger pointing. Just the facts.

[LilGreenPuffer]

We don't have any Amish in this area but we do have Mennonites. Great people but they see animals more as objects than family members.

That makes perfect sense. I think it applies to anyone who farms. Most farm animals aren't pets - they're working animals, or they're producers, or they're meat. I know that when I have my own farm, I'll need to distinguish how I treat my pets and how I treat animals that I raise for meat. Once, I visited a summer camp with a farming track. They raised pigs for meat, and their names were Bacon and Sausage. It wasn't a sick joke - it was a reminder to the kids that these pigs were not pets to become attached to, they were being raised for food. The kids learned not to love the animals, but they also learned to treat them with respect and gratitude, and they ate the meat with a thankful heart, realizing that an animal had been killed in order to nourish them. On the other hand, the pot-bellied pig that ate table scraps was named Charlie, and the kids adored him and played with him.

[Flutter]

Yep. Definitely! It's just really visible with their carriage horses. They get them from the track, use them (often times while they're sore) and then sell them for slaughter. I hate it but otherwise they're good to deal with. They have some great stores and for some things I shop there almost exclusively.

It's life I guess. They won't change and in many ways their horses aren't treated any worse than many others. It's just more visible.

I'd never buy a pet from them though. I have a friend who bought a dog from them and it's stupid, hyperactive, and has some health issues. Not normal for a sheltie and she paid several hundreds. Shelties are in very high demand over here, they're normally such good dogs. They're one of the few dogs where seniors are readily adoped (IME).

[Pufferpunk]

http://www.nopuppymillscanada.ca/

Too bad more sites don't model themselves after this one. Very responsible, no finger pointing. Just the facts.

If you follow the Hunte Corporation mentioned in that website, they are said to buy directly from the Amish.

[Pufferpunk]

I highly doubt that many Amish do such things. They are strongly pacifist and believe in submitting to violence before hurting something themselves.

http://www.escapefromtheamish.com/2009/ ... mills.html

[J-P]

It is sad... Thank you for making me research this. I still don't think is it an "Amish" problem but a problem in general.

http://www.funtrivia.com/en/subtopics/H ... 23688.html

I think the focus has turned to the Amish simply because they are doing it and got caught. Unfortunately, in the grand scope of things, they are not the only ones and given the total numbers, they may be the worst offenders but far from the majority.