The Amish and Mennonite religions began in the mid 17th century as a rebellion, of sorts, against the Baptist and their close relationship with the government.  Menno Simons led the Mennonites but Jacob Amman believed the Mennonites were not following the Bible to the "T", and he broke free of the Mennonites and formed the Amish religion which is still considered the stricter of the two religions.  Followers of both faiths were persecuted and in the early 18th century the Amish immigrated to North America.  Once in America the Amish began to disagree on certain aspects of the faith and many Amish followers broke free to start the Mennonite faith in North America.  Today the two faiths are referred to as the Old Order Amish and the Amish Mennonite.  For our report, the word "Amish" will be used to encompass both groups.

Pennsylvania was a safe haven for persecuted religions and the Amish quickly called Pennsylvania home.  80% of Amish in North America today reside in Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana. Holmes County Ohio, Elkhart County Indiana and Lancaster County Pennsylvania hold the largest saturation of Amish in the United States.  Lancaster, the third largest Amish community, is probably best known due to heavy tourism and its easy access to urban dwellers.

For many animal rescuers and puppy mill fighters, Lancaster County Pennsylvania is better known as the "Puppy Mill Capital of the East Coast".  In this month's AWAwatchdog we'll take a look into the Amish dog farming industry.  

The most comprehensive website on the problems in Lancaster County Pennsylvania is Prisoners of Greed.  We recommend that you visit their website for information about the PA puppy mill problem and suggestions on what you can to do help.  Lancaster County is unique in that it has the largest concentration of dog breeders for any county in the United States (both state and USDA licensed facilities).  

Lancaster County also has double the number of adult breeding dogs found in their facilities, compared to the national average.  The average number of breeding dogs in USDA licensed facilities is estimated to be sixty.  Lancaster County facilities average 119 adult breeding dogs per facility.

Lancaster County, PA - Facilities with

 100-199 adult dogs = 29
200-299 adult dogs = 6
300-399 adult dogs = 7
400-500 adult dogs = 2
Over 500 adult dogs = 2

In our investigations, we have discovered that pockets of Amish dog breeding communities are found throughout the country.  The following states and counties are believed to hold a large number of licensed and unlicensed Amish dog farmers.

The biggest problem that persists with Amish/Mennonite dog farmers is the inability to locate the breeders.  According to Kim Townsend of PetShopPuppies.com, 50% of the recognized Amish names are unlicensed.  She reports that these breeders appear to have started their own dog registry in which no information is provided on the breeder's locale and often times she suspects that a handful of licensed breeders are registering all puppies in their names so as to protect the unlicensed activity of other breeders.  

AWAwatchdog.com will continue to monitor the Amish breeding situation.  We recommend that you join HUA in their long battle against the Lancaster County puppy mills and watch our website for updates on how you can get involved.

Warning! Extremely graphic photos and video.

Images from an Amish USDA licensed facility with No Violations. More Pictures

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Images from an Amish unlicensed facility. More Pictures

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Video from an Amish  USDA licensed facility with no violations

Video from an Amish  unlicensed facility (no audio)

Video from an Amish dog auction.

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It doesn't get any worse than this! See the full story (video).  Graphic!