An earlier version of this story misidentified the location of Holmes County.
Over half of Ohio’s high volume dog breeders are currently licensed in just one county, according to Ohio Department of Agriculture data.
Holmes County in northeast Ohio has 224 of the state’s 432 breeders currently licensed. Nearby Coshocton County has 56 breeders, Tuscarawas County has 42 breeders and Wayne County has 33. All together, these four counties account for around 82% of the state’s licensed high volume dog breeders.
Holmes County is also the center of Ohio Amish Country.
The Amish have shifted away from running farms focused on producing just one product and have increasingly focused on diversifying their income over the past 50 years, said Steve Nolt, the Director of the Young Center for Anabaptist and Pietist Studies at Elizabethtown University in Pennsylvania.
Some Amish turned to dog breeding because it has modest startup costs and because their rural homes lend themselves to it, Nolt said.
“They are a rural situated people. This is not a business that exists in urban areas or suburban areas. It’s kind of a rural business regardless of who’s involved just because of the space requirements and things like that,” he said.
The Amish use their income to pay property taxes, fund their schools, shop at stores and pay people to drive them around, Nolt said.
Transportation and neighborhoods reporter Nathan Hart can be reached at NHart@dispatch.com, @NathanRHart on X and nathanhart.dispatch.com on Bluesky.
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Most of Ohio’s high volume dog breeders are clustered in a handful of counties
Reporting by Nathan Hart, Columbus Dispatch / The Columbus Dispatch
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
