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The Scarlet Letter - A

is for Amish. Someone should hang a big "A" on the back of their buggy. The Columbus Dispatch yesterday had an editorial about the terrible problem of puppy mills--the indiscriminate breeding of dogs, poor conditions, and the resulting auctions. Reading between and above the lines--Millersburg and Holmes County, the only words missing are, "Amish farmers."

But on Sunday, April 22, the Dispatch wasn't so reticent: "There are 186 USDA-licensed breeders in Ohio, and more than 100 of them are in Berlin, Millersburg and Sugarcreek, the heart of Amish country." The editorial in yesterday's paper says Holmes County licensed 478 kennels in 2006, a 40% increase. So a county license and a USDA license are not the same, if these numbers mean anything. Not only will these dogs not be healthy, but their resulting behavior problems will cause their early death at the hands of owners (who will have them euthanized) who wanted to save a few bucks by going to the pet store.