What would you do if you witnessed animal cruelty?

[Schifference]

Who are we to judge? Animal could have thyroid issue or some other issue that causes shaking. I have a female Doberman that has never had puppies with huge nipples. Perception is the issue. If the animal caretaker perceived a problem with his/her dogs he/she would take action, for example, if it died they would bury or dispose of it. Maybe we should be concerned with the way you perceive their children are raised and what they are forced to do. What if the animal were free to go anywhere it wanted and your Amish host was gracious enough to toss some scraps and provide a shelter for the stray? I would think that in the early days, dogs stayed outside of the house and the person that was very cold in their cabin was not giving their blanket to a dog.

[otherone]

Buy the dogs. Give them a good life. Problem solved.

[RJB]

I would think that in the early days, dogs stayed outside of the house and the person that was very cold in their cabin was not giving their blanket to a dog.

Especially in the days before flea collars. Flea infestations are nasty. Dog infestations can be nasty too.

[The Northbreather]

Buy the dogs. Give them a good life. Problem solved.

This^^^

[charrob]

You asked what someone would do, so not sure if you're looking for any practical and immediate suggestions to address what is happening today for the dogs. I will try to give a practical reply, even though you probably have thought of practical solutions.

Are the people open to any assistance? If so, then what about donating an old used blanket or two? You'd likely have to buy one, but the Goodwill store where I live sells really thick and clean blankets for $4.00. I once got two decent blankets for $1.00 each. You would not even have to tell them you bought it for them. Just pull it out of your car like you already had it. When the dog jumps in your arms, just wrap her up in it and put her back on the ground.

Also, furniture stores often have a lot of old and really large cardboard boxes for disposal. You could cut a few boxes and layer each piece on the cold ground. It's not much, but that will, at least, help buffer the cold from the cement. If you want to go further, then stores like Home Depot sell some cheap, pressed wood sheets.

Many years ago, I worked for a rescue who had a humane investigator who always worked to educate the people and help them. It was never about trying to take animals away or get people into trouble. It was about trying to lessen the suffering of animals. The best way was just working with the people.

My best advice would be to just bring the animals some blankets and try to talk to the people. You have to do it in a way that doesn't put them on the defense. It's not easy to do. Amish, in particular, are pretty hard on their animals.... not sure if you're going to have much luck, but it never hurts to try.

I hope you're able to soften their hearts a bit towards their dogs.
Thanks for your caring. There's not enough of that in this harsh world.

Thanks to everyone for commenting. Thanks especially to NorthCarolinaLiberty and PursuePeace for your quick responses which I saw Saturday morning before we left to see the Christmas events around Lancaster: We attended/saw 8 events over the weekend around Lancaster so we were only at the Guest House earlier in the day then returned around 11:00 pm to 11:30 pm each night. We checked out Sunday.

Although from the website I had thought the Guest House was separate from other buildings on the farm, it turned out that it was actually adjoined to the Amish Family’s Quilt Shop which was adjoined to the Amish Family’s home. The Guest House had a huge kitchen; at the far end were two large white doors that were locked that lead to the family’s Quilt Shop. Here’s from Google Maps:



We were told to park our car right in front of the garage; you can see from the photo above that the door to enter the Guest House was almost right next to an open doorway to the garage (which was perpendicular to the Guest House). When we came in each night and parked our car, the dog came out of the garage to greet us as we opened our car doors. She then followed us to the Guest House door and wanted to come in with us. We couldn’t let her in because the owner told us there were no dogs allowed in the Guest House. So she sat there and whimpered and scratched at the door a bit looking us straight in the eyes. It was heartbreaking as we knew she was cold; she had horrible arthritis and kind of hobbled when she walked and laying on a cold hard floor must have made it unbearable for her. On Friday night we pretended to close the Guest House door to see where she would go. After a very long wait, she finally walked back into the garage. We waited a long time hoping she would come back out of the garage and go toward the family’s home; we assumed they had let her out to go to the bathroom. She never came out of the garage. At that point we realized that that was where she slept. There is an open doorway without a door so I just beamed my iphone flashlight into the garage to see the situation. There was a bowl with dog food in it but there was no water in her water bowl. She was curled up in a corner shivering. There was no heat. Since lights were on in the Quilt Shop when we pulled up, I wrapped on the white doors to let the family know she was shivering, it was 21 degrees out, and would it be all right with them if we brought the dog into the Guest House with us? Even if she could just stay in the kitchen I’d be happy to clean up any mess she made. But no one answered, so there was nothing I could do, so decided to speak with them the next day.

Friday night I was up late into the wee hours of the morning on the internet trying to find out what Lancaster PA laws were so that when I spoke with the family I could mention this to them. I know in Maryland where we live that it’s not allowed for a dog to be in temperatures less than 33 degrees. Although there is a tethering law in PA. forbidding a dog to be tethered for longer than 30 minutes in temperatures that go below freezing, I saw no other clear laws regarding untethered dogs that I could mention to the family. I had no intention of squealing on the family to any “authorities” which more than likely would have made the situation much worse for the dogs. But I did want to find out what the local laws were, and I wanted to try to do something to help the dogs. Since I know nothing about Lancaster PA. (this was our first time there), I was trying to think of solutions when I wrote the original post. The only thing I could think of at the time was that the Amish make quilts they sell for many hundreds of dollars. In fact, the large closets in the Guest House were filled with blankets and quilts. The closets in the bathrooms also were filled with towels – two of which were heavy. I had no right to the quilts or the towels outside of using them in the Guest House. But I figured the two towels could be easily washed, and I would pay for them if the owners wanted me to. So I brought the two heavy towels out for the female and folded one for underneath her and one for on top of her; this was after not being able to sleep and getting back up at 3:30 am to bring the towels out for her.

Saturday morning upon awakening the first thing I did was get on the internet and see if anyone here had ideas. NorthCarolinaLiberty your suggestion of a Goodwill Store was exactly what I was looking for. The Goodwill was the answer to our prayers. We planned to attend three events on Saturday; the second event was a self tour through the National Christmas Center which is 20,000 square feet of life sized Christmas animations and exhibits. I had allocated 2 hours for this but rather than reading all the signs and history throughout the museum, we just ran through quickly in 45 minutes as I had pre-paid tickets. This gave us the time to go to the Goodwill Store outside of Lancaster which was an eyeopener for all of us. Their merchandise is like new! We found 2 thick heavy blankets for $7.00! They were clean and like new. What a great suggestion; thank you so much!!!

We decided it was better to just buy the blankets for the dogs rather than say anything. We didn’t get back to the Guest House till late (around 11:30 pm) because the last event we went to didn’t end till around 10:30 pm and there was lots of traffic getting out of that parking lot. Like the night before, when we pulled our car up, the dog came out of the garage to greet us. She was so sweet and so friendly. And she followed us to the door of the Guest House and wanted in in the worst of ways. Finally she slowly walked back into the garage. I decided to take the blanket for the male in first; he was in a very large wooden pen about 6 foot high. I never opened the door to the pen as I didn’t feel I had a right to, so simply put my hand over top the pen and dropped the blanket into the pen. At this point I noticed the 2 towels I brought in for the female the night before were gone so I couldn’t bring them back to the Guest House. I then went back into the Guest House to get the blanket we bought for the female. My family was sitting at the kitchen table and as I picked up the blanket to take it out to the female, we heard a wrap on the two white doors that adjoined the Guest House to the Quilt Shop. In comes the Amish man holding a flash light. And he sits down at the kitchen table and starts to chit chat. He never mentioned the towels or the dogs. Altogether we talked with him about life, world politics, Lancaster Christmas events, and everything in between for about 1.5 hours. About 15 minutes into the conversation he looked at me holding this big heavy blanket; so I said that I had noticed the night before that his sweet dog was shivering from the cold and that I bought this blanket for her and was it okay with him if I brought it to her? His response was that of complete surprise: he said: “You bought this for her?” Emphasis on “bought”. I said yes, she was shivering and was it okay that she has this where she sleeps? And he looked at me earnestly and said: “Thank you.” The subject then changed and we talked about lots of other things. He was such a nice, warm, honorable man. I honestly don’t believe it even occurred to him that the dog suffered from the cold. During our conversation he did ask where we were from? We told him Maryland. He said they get a lot of New Jersey people and that his friend, who sells Pomskys (which are a mix between Pomeranians and Huskies) is getting $4,900 for each puppy he sells to people from New Jersey. He said he thinks the people who pay so much for a puppy must be crazy… and he laughed. So, he definitely is quite aware of the puppy mill business going on in his community and considering his female dog is a recent mama, I do think he sells her pups. Which is his business. Then we talked about other stuff for a while. Then as the conversation was ending, I looked him in the eye and quietly and respectfully said: “So if I put this blanket out there for your dog, will you promise to keep it with her during the cold weather?” My tone was more apologetic than anything else. And he looked me in the eye and said “yes”.

I believe him. He was an honorable man. Would I have preferred that he take the dog into his home when it’s 21 degrees out? Of course. But it’s not going to happen. And it’s not my right to force this on anyone. I think this is the best that can be done and I’m grateful he was willing to accept these blankets for his dogs.

NorthCarolinaLiberty thanks again for your suggestion of going to a Goodwill Store. We looked through some blankets at the store then there were these 2 blankets together and we knew right away that these would be perfect. It was truly a prayer answered. I’m not sure we could have found heavier blankets in a department store.

PursuePeace thanks for your advice on how to approach the owners. Your ideas were like my own; that it must be done respectfully, almost apologetically, so not to put them on the defense. And this seemed to work. Hopefully there are 2 dogs in the outskirts of Lancaster tonight that are a little warmer and a little more comfortable.

[William Tell]

Thanks to everyone for commenting. Thanks especially to NorthCarolinaLiberty and PursuePeace for your quick responses which I saw Saturday morning before we left to see the Christmas events around Lancaster: We attended/saw 8 events over the weekend around Lancaster so we were only at the Guest House earlier in the day then returned around 11:00 pm to 11:30 pm each night. We checked out Sunday.

Although from the website I had thought the Guest House was separate from other buildings on the farm, it turned out that it was actually adjoined to the Amish Family’s Quilt Shop which was adjoined to the Amish Family’s home. The Guest House had a huge kitchen; at the far end were two large white doors that were locked that lead to the family’s Quilt Shop. Here’s from Google Maps:



We were told to park our car right in front of the garage; you can see from the photo above that the door to enter the Guest House was almost right next to an open doorway to the garage (which was perpendicular to the Guest House). When we came in each night and parked our car, the dog came out of the garage to greet us as we opened our car doors. She then followed us to the Guest House door and wanted to come in with us. We couldn’t let her in because the owner told us there were no dogs allowed in the Guest House. So she sat there and whimpered and scratched at the door a bit looking us straight in the eyes. It was heartbreaking as we knew she was cold; she had horrible arthritis and kind of hobbled when she walked and laying on a cold hard floor must have made it unbearable for her. On Friday night we pretended to close the Guest House door to see where she would go. After a very long wait, she finally walked back into the garage. We waited a long time hoping she would come back out of the garage and go toward the family’s home; we assumed they had let her out to go to the bathroom. She never came out of the garage. At that point we realized that that was where she slept. There is an open doorway without a door so I just beamed my iphone flashlight into the garage to see the situation. There was a bowl with dog food in it but there was no water in her water bowl. She was curled up in a corner shivering. There was no heat. Since lights were on in the Quilt Shop when we pulled up, I wrapped on the white doors to let the family know she was shivering, it was 21 degrees out, and would it be all right with them if we brought the dog into the Guest House with us? Even if she could just stay in the kitchen I’d be happy to clean up any mess she made. But no one answered, so there was nothing I could do, so decided to speak with them the next day.

Friday night I was up late into the wee hours of the morning on the internet trying to find out what Lancaster PA laws were so that when I spoke with the family I could mention this to them. I know in Maryland where we live that it’s not allowed for a dog to be in temperatures less than 33 degrees. Although there is a tethering law in PA. forbidding a dog to be tethered for longer than 30 minutes in temperatures that go below freezing, I saw no other clear laws regarding untethered dogs that I could mention to the family. I had no intention of squealing on the family to any “authorities” which more than likely would have made the situation much worse for the dogs. But I did want to find out what the local laws were, and I wanted to try to do something to help the dogs. Since I know nothing about Lancaster PA. (this was our first time there), I was trying to think of solutions when I wrote the original post. The only thing I could think of at the time was that the Amish make quilts they sell for many hundreds of dollars. In fact, the large closets in the Guest House were filled with blankets and quilts. The closets in the bathrooms also were filled with towels – two of which were heavy. I had no right to the quilts or the towels outside of using them in the Guest House. But I figured the two towels could be easily washed, and I would pay for them if the owners wanted me to. So I brought the two heavy towels out for the female and folded one for underneath her and one for on top of her; this was after not being able to sleep and getting back up at 3:30 am to bring the towels out for her.

Saturday morning upon awakening the first thing I did was get on the internet and see if anyone here had ideas. NorthCarolinaLiberty your suggestion of a Goodwill Store was exactly what I was looking for. The Goodwill was the answer to our prayers. We planned to attend three events on Saturday; the second event was a self tour through the National Christmas Center which is 20,000 square feet of life sized Christmas animations and exhibits. I had allocated 2 hours for this but rather than reading all the signs and history throughout the museum, we just ran through quickly in 45 minutes as I had pre-paid tickets. This gave us the time to go to the Goodwill Store outside of Lancaster which was an eyeopener for all of us. Their merchandise is like new! We found 2 thick heavy blankets for $7.00! They were clean and like new. What a great suggestion; thank you so much!!!

We decided it was better to just buy the blankets for the dogs rather than say anything. We didn’t get back to the Guest House till late (around 11:30 pm) because the last event we went to didn’t end till around 10:30 pm and there was lots of traffic getting out of that parking lot. Like the night before, when we pulled our car up, the dog came out of the garage to greet us. She was so sweet and so friendly. And she followed us to the door of the Guest House and wanted in in the worst of ways. Finally she slowly walked back into the garage. I decided to take the blanket for the male in first; he was in a very large wooden pen about 6 foot high. I never opened the door to the pen as I didn’t feel I had a right to, so simply put my hand over top the pen and dropped the blanket into the pen. At this point I noticed the 2 towels I brought in for the female the night before were gone so I couldn’t bring them back to the Guest House. I then went back into the Guest House to get the blanket we bought for the female. My family was sitting at the kitchen table and as I picked up the blanket to take it out to the female, we heard a wrap on the two white doors that adjoined the Guest House to the Quilt Shop. In comes the Amish man holding a flash light. And he sits down at the kitchen table and starts to chit chat. He never mentioned the towels or the dogs. Altogether we talked with him about life, world politics, Lancaster Christmas events, and everything in between for about 1.5 hours. About 15 minutes into the conversation he looked at me holding this big heavy blanket; so I said that I had noticed the night before that his sweet dog was shivering from the cold and that I bought this blanket for her and was it okay with him if I brought it to her? His response was that of complete surprise: he said: “You bought this for her?” Emphasis on “bought”. I said yes, she was shivering and was it okay that she has this where she sleeps? And he looked at me earnestly and said: “Thank you.” The subject then changed and we talked about lots of other things. He was such a nice, warm, honorable man. I honestly don’t believe it even occurred to him that the dog suffered from the cold. During our conversation he did ask where we were from? We told him Maryland. He said they get a lot of New Jersey people and that his friend, who sells Pomskys (which are a mix between Pomeranians and Huskies) is getting $4,900 for each puppy he sells to people from New Jersey. He said he thinks the people who pay so much for a puppy must be crazy… and he laughed. So, he definitely is quite aware of the puppy mill business going on in his community and considering his female dog is a recent mama, I do think he sells her pups. Which is his business. Then we talked about other stuff for a while. Then as the conversation was ending, I looked him in the eye and quietly and respectfully said: “So if I put this blanket out there for your dog, will you promise to keep it with her during the cold weather?” My tone was more apologetic than anything else. And he looked me in the eye and said “yes”.

I believe him. He was an honorable man. Would I have preferred that he take the dog into his home when it’s 21 degrees out? Of course. But it’s not going to happen. And it’s not my right to force this on anyone. I think this is the best that can be done and I’m grateful he was willing to accept these blankets for his dogs.

NorthCarolinaLiberty thanks again for your suggestion of going to a Goodwill Store. We looked through some blankets at the store then there were these 2 blankets together and we knew right away that these would be perfect. It was truly a prayer answered. I’m not sure we could have found heavier blankets in a department store.

PursuePeace thanks for your advice on how to approach the owners. Your ideas were like my own; that it must be done respectfully, almost apologetically, so not to put them on the defense. And this seemed to work. Hopefully there are 2 dogs in the outskirts of Lancaster tonight that are a little warmer and a little more comfortable.

This is the nicest thing I have read on this site in a very long time. You have a good heart. And remarkably you seemed to find the perfect way to act considerate towards both man and beast. Merry Christmas and +rep. Rating the thread 5 stars due the resolution.

[Anti Federalist]

This is the nicest thing I have read on this site in a very long time. You have a good heart. And remarkably you seemed to find the perfect way to act considerate towards both man and beast. Merry Christmas and +rep. Rating the thread 5 stars due the resolution.

I concur.

+rep

[Swordsmyth]

This is the nicest thing I have read on this site in a very long time. You have a good heart. And remarkably you seemed to find the perfect way to act considerate towards both man and beast. Merry Christmas and +rep. Rating the thread 5 stars due the resolution.

I concur.

+rep

Me too.

[sam1952]

+ rep and Merry Christmas!

[PursuePeace]

This is the nicest thing I have read on this site in a very long time. You have a good heart. And remarkably you seemed to find the perfect way to act considerate towards both man and beast. Merry Christmas and +rep. Rating the thread 5 stars due the resolution.

Agreed. That's awesome, charrob. Thanks for the update.
It sounds like your compassionate heart had a good effect on him. Otherwise, he probably would have acted a bit more dismissive. That he looked you in the eye when he answered you is a good sign.
Hope you and yours have a very Merry Christmas!

[NorthCarolinaLiberty]

Charrob,

Glad you were able to do something. Your thread is +rep x one billion. Merry Christmas!!!!

[charrob]

Thanks everyone for your kind words and again for your help, thoughts and suggestions. This made all the difference. Best of wishes to you all for a New Year filled with much happiness and good health!