Awareness Day 2006 was held September 16 in Lancaster County, PA at Intercourse Park.

Dogs, dogs and more dogs! Some walking, but most were being carried.

I honestly can not say if we (Demitry Herman and I) taught - more then I learned. Yes, puppy mills are bad, but I hadn't thought twice, as to why they picked this location. I met Carol and Kathy (co-founders) and made arrangements to meet for the Candlelight Vigil Friday night. (Pictures) They had picked a major intersection in Lancaster with banners, candles, shirts, a megaphone and of course many dogs, the majority having been rescued from a puppy mill previously. The banners were my first clue: "Amish go back to harvesting crops and not puppies." There were chants of "no more puppy mills - no more puppy mills" Flyers were passed out to those interested.

When I went back to the hotel, my thoughts were flying! Amish? into puppy mills? My thoughts on the Amish until this point had been, religious people that have horse drawn buggies and live a simple life on farms!

Saturday, what a day! The park was just east of Intercourse, an Amish town. The road is marked for buggies. There are many, many stands where you can hire a buggy, numerous craft stores and produce stands. Typically, a place I would have (previously) loved to visit.

I arrived at the park and started setting up DogsAdverseReactions display (pictures below). It looked like more rain, but it held off and was just windy all day. Demitry arrived and it was fantastic to finally meet him! Speeches started at 10, Kathy Hargis (co-founder and also had "Rosalie"), opened up, we had a blessing by Dottie Johns (pet chaplin), Tammy Grimes (DogsDeserveBetter.com), I was up, then Demitry. There was also, Chris DeRose (Last Chance for Animals and the show "Desire"), Rikki Rockett (drummer for the band "Poison"), Carol Araneo-Mayer (co-founder and had "Kiki") and Karrie Flanaghan (Lancaster Humane League).

Although we had people with questions before speeches, afterwards there appeared to be a constant line. One of the most common comments I heard from the general public was "I didn't realize there were could be problems with all of these drugs!" The people that were also set up (rescues/shelters etc) had questions too, but it was more in the form of wanting answers of what they could use without possible side effects.

They had a Walk scheduled into town. You can read more about that and see pictures at Lancaster Online "A Day to Howl". The headlines in Sunday's print edition of the paper were "Grrrrrrrr". There are more pictures taken at Awareness Day and also Woof Stock on Sunday in Harrisburg. (Other pictures). We had a donation jar for "Rabies Challenge" and raised $56.00.

Now, more on the Amish. As everyone knows, I don't take anything for granted, I research it and here is what I found:

Letter from Last Chance for Animals

"New Jersey Consumers Against Pet Shop Abuse THE PLAIN TRUTH - PENNSYLVANIA and AMISH & MENNONITE PUPPY MILLS. Welcome to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, home to over 500 puppy mills." (please read more)

From Newhouse News Service: "Amish Puppy Industry Draws Charges of Cruelty"

The PittsburgChannel: "Action News Extra: Puppy Mills Investigated"

Humane Society of United States: "Dutch Oven: Billboard Turns Up the Heat on Puppy Mills in Lancaster County, PA"

WKYC of Ohio: "Pet Store Problem"

ColumbusDogConnection: "Puppy Mill Articles & TV Reports"

From "Pixiedust Papillons Phalenes - The Tragedy of Amish Puppy Mills"


Are all Amish involved? I don't know. I do know you can go to an Amish produce stand and they have various breeds of puppies available.

MUCH more information available by doing a search