Horse Diapers and Freedom of Religion

[appleman2006]

....
I totally get why people might not want to drive any distance with a diaper attached to the back end of their horse. The smell tends to be bad enough at those neither regions without that added. ....

Anyway as I see it this is definitely a first world problem.

I don't think the smell has anything to do with it, at least for the most conservative orders, like the Swartentruber group. Some one once told me how they were chatting with a guy next to them in line at the machinery auction, and he commented to the Swartentruber guy that "Oh, it looks like you had to muck out the barn this morning before coming to the sale." They guy looked down at his bare feet (except for the manure caked around the edges, and between his toes), then said, "Oh, no, that was from Wednesday." (Machinery sale is on Saturdays....)

In regards to whether this is a problem in the developing world, I'm trying to remember if this was a problem in the big city (Fortelaza, CE) in Brazil where we lived for 10 months doing language school. Being a much older city (originally established by the Dutch, before the Portuguese ran them off), there were a lot more animal drawn carts there than where we lived for most of our years there, Porto Velho, RO. We seldom saw animal drawn carts in the city there. But in both cases, it was donkeys, not horses. Are donkeys better about 'holding it'? Even in the places where there were donkey carts, I don't remember any piles. Maybe the rats kept it cleaned up.

I don't like to throw the horse manure in our garden or flower gardens, because horses don't digest their food like cows do, so there are seeds in there, of what ever they ate, and they will sprout. (The seeds, not the horses. )

Good points.

[Ernie]

Fascinating: I never would have guessed that horse diapers would generate two pages of commentaries.

You should have seen the old MD thread(s) on outhouses.

Maybe Josh can resurrect those for us. I remember them.

[MaxPC]

Fascinating: I never would have guessed that horse diapers would generate two pages of commentaries.

You should have seen the old MD thread(s) on outhouses.

Was it the controversy over two holes vs one hole and its impact on costs vs modesty?

As for horse manure: we always put manure into its own compost pile: those who ride horses or drive horses were appreciated by the local garden clubs too. The clubs would get chipped wood from the county's chip wood pile (fallen trees) and manure from the horses: the roses in the county gardens were the envy of the surrounding counties.

3 pages and counting

[PeterG]

It seems to me that the right (i.e. Christlike) thing for the Amish to do in this case would be to diaper their horses, and that the right (i.e. Christlike) thing for their neighbors to do would be to tolerate the horse excrement. If these Amish genuinely believe that horse diapers would be displeasing to God...well, I think they're mistaken.

[ohio jones]

Was it the controversy over two holes vs one hole and its impact on costs vs modesty?

Not at all.
Here's one case from PA
and another from OH.

A surprising number of people tenaciously defended the obstinacy of the Old Order outhouse outlaws.

[MaxPC]

Was it the controversy over two holes vs one hole and its impact on costs vs modesty?

Not at all.
Here's one case from PA
and another from OH.

A surprising number of people tenaciously defended the obstinacy of the Old Order outhouse outlaws.

Sentiment over tradition is a powerful emotion. Some invest their entire identity with tradition(s).

I can share some real humdingers of stories I've witnessed over the years. It's not a right or wrong thing, just a vested emotional attachment.

The flip side: sometimes it's abuse of civic power for financial gain. We have a relative in Florida that had to deal with similar state-mandated health regs.

The only way to meet those mandated regs was to hire a company that would do the work. There was only one company that was certified to do the work and, you guessed it, it was owned by the man who wrote the regs for the state agency. Some things never change. In this case, when the relative brought this to the attention of the local newspaper, the ensuing expose resulted in the man paying massive fines and he had to resign from the regulations board. His jail time was commuted on condition he never did business in Florida again. In the old days, men like him would just move to another state and pull the same scam again. With computers, it's become more difficult for them to do this but they sometimes still succeed when the contract agencies are lazy about background checks.

[mike]

Fascinating: I never would have guessed that horse diapers would generate two pages of commentaries.

You should have seen the old MD thread(s) on outhouses.

[MaxPC]

Fascinating: I never would have guessed that horse diapers would generate two pages of commentaries.

You should have seen the old MD thread(s) on outhouses.

Yep.

[appleman2006]

Was it the controversy over two holes vs one hole and its impact on costs vs modesty?

Not at all.
Here's one case from PA
and another from OH.

A surprising number of people tenaciously defended the obstinacy of the Old Order outhouse outlaws.

Anyone know what actually became of these cases? Did the Amish eventually comply or did the state eventually just give up?

[Josh]

The Amish did not comply and the government is continuing to not issue permits, etc.