news Who will stop Amish animal abuse?

[GraceRandolph]

It's August 2, 2016—a hot summer day in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, home to the Amish religious community. A woman named Tawn Crowther is driving along a narrow rural road when suddenly, she sees something horrifying up ahead. A horse, harnessed to a large wooden cart, has stopped in its tracks, seemingly overcome by the heat and the heavy load it has to pull. But rather than help the distressed animal, its driver—a man dressed in the classic wide-brimmed hat and plain white shirt of the Amish—has started brutally beating it.
 

 

As Crowther described the incident: 

[The] horse was unable to pull a wagon full of watermelon and 2 grown men [...] At that point he continued to kick, hit and pull on the poor seemingly dying animal. I pulled over and called the police. They came to evaluate the situation, only to tell me that they are unsure of the outcome. Because Amish are governed under a different law. Are you kidding? Isn't abuse standard across the board? So if I decide to beat and kill animals I need to change my religion to be above the law?

In the end, the horse was euthanized, despite the local fire department having used around 1,000 gallons of water to try to cool down the overheated animal. In a subsequent statement, the Ephrata Police Department denied saying that the Amish are subject to a "different law" and claimed that the officer on the scene had said only that "how the law applied to the immediate situation was not immediately clear." But it's not really plausible that it would be "unclear" what laws applied. All 50 states have their own laws against cruelty to animals, and in each, the concept is "standard across the board," just as Crowther said. You couldn't ask for a more clear-cut case than someone beating an overworked horse to death. 
 

Full article: https://www.currentaffairs.org/news/who-will-stop-amish-animal-abuse

[magazine]

poor baby 

[Vixen Eyes]

That's not just an Amish thing, it's general abuse. 

[Dante Silva]

I feel for the horse, it's sick how certain humans treat animals. When I read stories like this it makes me wish I could have done something.

 

Edited 20 hours ago by Dante Silva