ELMER TELLS IT LIKE IT IS

Well here we go again.  All of us Amish are being blamed for something one person did.  My son, John, and I, were walking down Main Street on Saturday, which I don't like to do.  There are lots of people out on Saturday and would prefer going during the week.  It's not that I don't like people, it's traffic I don't like.  Anyway, I am getting off subject, as Anna is telling me, a man came up to us and said that we beat and shot our horses.  How could we be so cruel with out animals?

I asked where he got that idea and he said on his computer.  Now, let me start by saying that Amish, as well as Old Order Mennonite believe our animals are a gift from God.  It is our duty to care for these animals, protect them, and take care of their health.  When the time comes for them to pass, whether it is do to age or they are cattle, pigs, chickens, etc. to be used for food, we are to use as painless way as possible.  I explained this to the man who told me that we were cruel and he said I would say that and walked away.

So, when we got home, I called Marilyn to see if she could find what got this man so upset on her computer.  When she found it, I had her read it me.  It seems some 20 year old Amish man in Pennsylvania was hauling water melon, himself and another fellow on his wagon.  It was too much weight for the horse and he collapsed.  The Amish man beat, kicked and I don't what else to the horse.  This is not the way of all Amish or Old Order Mennonite.  Because one does something that they should have more sense for, we don't all do it.

I don't know all the details as I wasn't there.  But he should have had at least two horses, maybe four haul the load.  He should have stopped when the horse started to show it couldn't haul that load.  If that was the only horse he had, he should have asked an Amish neighbor to haul it for him.  But being young in Amish, Old Order Mennonite and English, some young people don't think like they should sometimes. But, being raised on an Amish farm, he should have know he was doing wrong.  We are thought how to handle animals from where a little children.

Unfortunately, the horse died - even when the fire department tried to help it.  The young man, as I understand was arrested, could go to jail and be fined - as he should be.  I am not okaying what he did because he is young, just making a statement that young folks don't think sometimes.  What he did was wrong.  But all young Amish do not do what he did.  All adult Amish don't do what he did.

Some people also think that most Amish and Old Order Mennonite run dog mills.  They see two dogs on our property and immediately think we many more in our barn.  I explain that we do breed our two dogs sometimes, but we don't have a dog mill.  We then sell the puppies.  If we don't sell them, we do not shot them, but give them away.

Over at Jean's Old Order Mennonite house, they have one dog.  David and Jean do not run a dog mill, either nor do the plan on it.  At one time David thought of breeding his dog and another.  When he came to me and I explained all we had to do - shots, care, food, etc.  Most of the time, Anna and I really don't make much money when you add all the expenses up.  That's why we don't do it very often. We would only breed them once a year. In fact the last litter might be the last as we are thinking of getting our female spade. We just want keep them as farm dogs and pets, which they are all ready.  Our dogs are spoiled - Anna sees to that.

Anna says I'm going on.  What I trying to say is because one Amish or Old Order Mennonite person does something - it doesn't mean the rest of us do.

Trust God's Wisdom,
Elmer