"Amish Dog Factories"

Early in January 2019, before I was sworn into office, I got a call from Will Yoder, a commercially licensed and inspected dog breeder, to come visit his operation in rural Davis County.

Thankfully I took the opportunity to spend a day with Mr. Yoder, tour his facilities, and learn more about the Amish community and their economy.

I was immediately impressed by their facilities.

Clean, state of the art temperature controlled, daily outside access to run around, pleasant aroma... plus the animals were beautiful.

(Jan. 2019)

As work progressed at the statehouse, and as conversations on animal cruelty and commercial dog breeding took place, I did my best to stay in touch with Mr. Yoder.

I lovingly referring to the operation in Davis county as "Amish Dog Factories" to lampoon the archaic and inaccurate "puppy mill" description.

Mr. Yoder was very candid with me about how the industry has improved over the years, and how previous practices were phased out decades ago.

He was thankful to have me as a partner to personally inspect his facilities as often as I'd like and help restore the reputation of his commercial dog breeding operation.

Mr. Yoder similarly extends an invitation to tour his facilities to anyone who is honest, and is in fact conducting tours over Zoom as I write.

Most recently, I spent some time at the wiener dog facility, and was fortunate enough to claim two litter mates for our community.

Here are photos from that visit, documenting the fantastic working conditions at the dog factory:

(Oct, 2020)

Thank you sharing this incredible journey with me. Given all the controversial and divisive issues, I sure hope puppies is something we can all agree on.

Hope to see you Saturday,