ELIMSPORT – “Blatant discrimination” is what an attorney for Old Order Amish says about proposed ordinances in a rural Lycoming County township that would require horses on public roads to wear a device to collect feces and to have rubber horseshoes.

A third ordinance the Washington Twp. supervisors plan to consider Monday evening would require the registration of all equine-pulled carriages, buggies or carts operating on township or state highways.

The supervisors say they need to have them registered so the other two ordinances can be enforced.

The registration ordinance requires the placement of reflective numbers at least four inches in size on the front, back and each side of carriages, buggies and carts so they can be identified easily.

The ordinance does not set a fee but gives the supervisors authority to set one “from time to time.” There is no mention if it would be a single or annual registration.

Numerous complaints of horse manure on roadways is the reason for the ordinance requiring horses to wear something to catch their feces, supervisors say. The manure creates public safety and health issues, they say.

The reason for requiring rubber horseshoes is that the metal ones rapidly break down the road surface, creating a danger to the motoring public, the supervisors say. Motorcycles are at a particular risk.

Fines for violating any of the ordinances would range from $100 to $1,000 for the offense. The minimum fine for a second offense would be $500.

The ordinances give enforcement authority to the supervisors, township constable and state police.

The Amish community and its supporters will oppose the “absurd and outrageous proposition” and if necessary they will file a civil rights action in the courts, said Clifford Rieders, a Williamsport attorney who is representing them.

He accuses township officials of acting arbitrarily, capriciously and in disregard for the civil rights of the Amish.

The Amish take the position that their horses cause no problem and there are other ways of managing the township’s concerns, he said. His clients are willing to work with the township officials, he said.

Rieders claims the Amish, which have a large presence in the township, have turned rundown farms into beautifully manicured tracts.

“They simply want to be left alone in their traditional way of life,” he said.

The 2010 census listed 1,619 as the population of Washington Twp., a farming area that borders Union County in southern Lycoming County.