Amish Controversies

A proposed ordinance in Bedford County, Pennsylvania would force local Amish to adapt their buggies to be more “road-friendly”, at least from the perspective of some residents. At the same time, others are concerned it could “disproportionately impact” the Amish community. From the report at WJAC: BEDFORD COUNTY, Pa (WJAC) — A proposed ordinance in Bedford Township is drawing scrutiny ahead of a vote scheduled…

After last week’s animal cruelty case, I really wasn’t looking to write more on Amish-owned dogs coming to harm. But here we are. Today we see a report on an Amish dog breeder named John S. Stoltzfus Jr. The Lancaster County resident got himself into trouble after it was learned that, in late 2023, he had killed four Sheepadoodle puppies which weren’t selling. From the…

Amish parents in New York face a setback in the latest of a back-and-forth series of court decisions. In news released Tuesday, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled against the Amish parents and schools in the long-running case over vaccine requirements in New York schools. As a reminder, the current NY law requires vaccines not only in public schools, but in privately-operated ones…

The county, for its part, “vehemently den[ies]” that claim, according to new reporting at Cowboy State Daily. The issue is one we looked at last week in the Amish community at Hulett, Wyoming. A non-Amish rancher claimed that Crook County officials were driving Amish families away due to how it was handling a dispute over Amish use of outhouses. The man in question claimed that…

A really sad, and maddening, story was reported last week out of upstate New York. Some of this is hard to read. Via WWNY: POTSDAM, New York (WWNY) – Warning: the photos and description of the dog’s injury may be upsetting The St. Lawrence County Sheriff’s Office is investigating a suspected case of animal cruelty after a severely injured dog was brought to the Potsdam…

Another conflict over outhouses has roiled an Amish community in America’s least-populated state, with a rancher claiming threats of massive fines have caused local Amish families to start leaving. Hulett in Crook County is the site of Wyoming’s largest and oldest Amish settlement – about 190 people according to Young Center estimates, or roughly 40 families according to the report by Kate Meadows at Cowboy…

Last week we heard from the school superintendent of Randolph Central Schools in Cattaraugus County, New York, who placed blame for a local budget’s failure to pass on both the Amish, and those he claimed “used” the Amish to “flood the vote”. In that post I noted that those Amish living in the district, and thus having every right to vote, were likely motivated by…

You’re probably aware that the Amish vote much less often than non-Amish do. But a notable minority still do vote in general elections, and on local matters. So it’s not that odd to hear of Amish people voting. But I’d never seen a story quite like this before. In a new report, a school superintendent in New York is complaining about Amish participation in a…

A pair of videos have been making the rounds showing an Amish fisherman and a boy – who I would guess is his son – hauling away a giant fish after a successful catch. The fish is a muskellunge, better known as a “muskie” – and you can tell by the way the man is lugging it on his back that it is a hefty…

According to local officials,Amish traffic in Branch County, Michigan has been destroying roads – despite the county spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to maintain them. And unlike in other cases, this goes beyond standard buggy traffic. From the Coldwater Daily Reporter: [Manager Jay] Miller said that despite hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on Ray-Quincy, Copeland, and Hamman Roads over the last three years,…