I did not know this. This CTCA almost seems like a hate group. This article was sent to me by a professional handler. Not sure of the meaning of this email was, or what they are intending to justify. I am going to write back this person and see what type of relationship they have with the CTCA.
ROMANTICIZING THE AMISH
by Robert Jay Russell, Ph.D.,
CTCA President
Today a great, horrific tragedy befell a community of Amish in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. A gunman who alleged the need to rectify an as yet unpublicized past grievance, captured and shot innocent young children in an Amish one-room school. That is an unforgivable, inexcusable crime against all humanity.
When I was a child, I can well remember holiday drives with my parents into this pacific, bucolic countryside. The human inhabitants were quaint, shy and sullen. Their dress odd and interesting. Their lack of modern conveniences, cosmetics and grooming tools was positively spellbinding. Their farms -- and that was practically their only industry -- were immaculate, white, and severe in architecture. Their all black buggies were "cool," making us "English" (their term for anyone who isn't Amish) rather jealous of their simple, ostensibly "clean" lives.
Today, as then, the news media portrayed the Amish as a "gentle," "shy," "peaceful" and "reflective" people. The hype is that they are "godly, simple folk." Unfortunately, little of that image can bear examination.
The reclusive Amish are always run by a stern, undemocratic patriarchy. They are in all ways misogynistic. Child abuse abounds in every Amish community examined to date. And I do not mean mere corporal, hit-them-with-a-rod-to-make-them-behave abuse. Girls are often sexually abused by their own brothers and sometimes by their fathers. There is an extreme code of silence that prevents all but a few from reporting these evils. Any attempt to hold a man responsible for a criminal act results in the witness being excommunicated at once.
The fact that the highly inbred Amish are so often an example of a religious, utopian community run amok is not the focus of the CotonClub e-ZINE. After all, there are countless such examples in recent memory, from Jonestown through Waco. The aspects of the Amish that directly impact the Coton de Tulear world is the Amish's penchant for constructing huge dog farms -- puppy mills. To make the fate of their terribly abused dogs even worse, one needs only understand that the Amish are NOT animal lovers. To them, their god created all animals for exploitation, not veneration. You do not love nor can you even respect that which you are commanded to exploit.
Secondly, the Amish concept of Ethics is cultish and unquestioned. Obedience is the principle rule. Ethics, they claim, only applies within the Amish community. All outsiders -- the English -- can be dealt with without regard for fair play, honesty or reasonable secular rules. An Amish puppy mill owner can lie to and cheat any and all outsiders and, according to his twisted religious beliefs, he remains blameless. It is easy to see why an Amish puppy mill presents those of us who love dogs with a formidable, powerful and slippery enemy. The Amish can be efficient, hard working and ruthless.
Amish puppy mills almost invariably broker their puppies through the Hunte Corporation, who in turn, ships them to Petlands and other pet shops throughout the US. The recent on-then-off AKC contract was with Petland.
Everyone throughout the world should, in my opinion, decry the terrible violence which struck another American school today. But our sorrow and our shock at the death of innocent Amish children should not blind us to the nature of the Amish communities that so cruelly mistreat our beloved canine companions. There are captive Cotons right now in Amish barns, their pups going to well attended "Pet Boutiques" in California, New York and Florida. The Amish are many things, but to us, they are neither an "innocent" or a "gentle people."
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(c)2006 Dr. R. J. Russell & the CTCA
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