Pennsylvania Men Jailed Without Bail for Providing Ultrasound Services to Horses, Dairy Cows

Farmland is seen in Lancaster County, Pa., on Nov. 8, 2022. (Branden Eastwood/AFP via Getty Images)

Two Pennsylvania men remain in prison on suspicion of conducting an “unlicensed vet practice” after it was discovered earlier this month that they were providing ultrasounds to the horses and dairy cows of small independent farmers, according to authorities.

Rusty Herr, 43, was booked at the Lancaster County Prison on April 11, while Ethan Wentworth, 33, was sent to the York County Prison on April 10, following the complaint of practicing veterinary medicine without a license near their home of Airville, Pennsylvania.

Dairy farmer Ben Masemore, who is acting as a spokesman for Mr. Herr and Mr. Wentworth, told The Epoch Times that both men were each serving 30-day sentences without bail for using ultrasound for reproductive services such as pregnancy checks, which he said was business as usual on dairy farms.

“As a dairy farmer, I can tell you it is common practice in the state to use ultrasound for reproduction. Anyone can purchase one, and to think that they put these men in jail, it’s just hard to comprehend,” he said.

Both Mr. Herr and Mr. Wentworth had sterling reputations among the independent farming community, which often used their services as a less expensive yet high-quality alternative to more conventional options, according to Mr. Masemore.

“I have farmers calling me day and night concerned about what has happened,” he added. “This is a tragedy on many levels.”

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Mr. Herr and Mr. Wentworth are listed as operating partners of NoBull Solutions LLC, “an all encompassing reproductive management business dedicated to dairy farmers to help them meet and exceed the reproduction goals within their herd,” according to the company’s Facebook page. 

The Pennsylvania state authorities refused to comment on the detainment, claiming they couldn’t confirm or deny an investigation due to confidentiality statutes.

A GoSendGo page set up to assist in the legal costs claims the two men were detained illegally, “without due process, and being denied bail, for what? For ultrasounding dairy cows and horses—without a veterinary license.”

The page added that Mr. Wentworth was allegedly misled by authorities ahead of his arrest, when after being instructed by authorities to go to a courthouse to pay a fine, he was instead “kidnapped, denied the right to speak to an attorney or to call his family, and seven days later has still not seen a judge … Ethan’s pregnant wife and three young children are distraught and desperate to reach their husband and father, who is the sole breadwinner for their family.”

Mr. Herr was arrested on the morning of April 11 at his home, where he was handcuffed and taken away in front of his wife and children, according to Mr. Masemore, who said officers burst into the children’s bedrooms as they slept, leaving them “traumatized” by the experience.

The imprisonment of Mr. Herr and Mr. Wentworth has caused widespread anger over what critics and independent farmers claim to be an increasingly powerful government regulatory process they believe has been weaponized to empower large corporate farms at the expense of the smaller farmers.

Small Farms Face ‘Extinction’

Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.) told The Epoch Times that a corrupt alliance between “Big Ag” and Department of Agriculture rule-makers had created a monopoly that has led small, independent farmers to the brink of extinction.

“The deck is definitely stacked,” Mr. Massie previously told the publication. “Eighty-five percent of meat comes from four companies, and this monopoly exists as a result of government regulatory policy. There is an incestuous relationship between these large companies and the Department of Agriculture.”

In January, the alleged failures to adhere to the government’s regulatory policy led to Miller’s Organic Farm, a popular Amish farm in Lancaster, Pennsylvania, being the subject of an armed raid by officials on suspicion of selling “illegal milk,” among other products. The Pennsylvania Office of the Attorney General and the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture filed the lawsuit on April 9 against the farm’s owner, Amos Miller, alleging that he has violated Pennsylvania’s Milk Sanitation Law by operating without government-mandated permits.

The farm had initially been ordered to halt all sales of its dairy products until a court ruling on April 12 permitted Mr. Miller to sell his goods anywhere in the world except in the state where he resides.

Mr. Massie hopes that the new legislation he has authored will make it easier for small farmers and ranchers to serve their customers and remain a sustained part of the American food landscape. The Processing Revival and Intrastate Meat Exemption (PRIME) Act would give individual states the freedom to permit “intrastate distribution of custom-slaughtered meat such as beef, pork, or lamb to consumers, restaurants, hotels, boarding houses, and grocery stores.”

According to Mr. Massie, the bipartisan bill, co-authored by Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine), already has 50 co-sponsors and is set to be attached to the upcoming farm bill.

However, Mr. Masemore said time is not on the side of small farmers, with the government action against Mr. Herr and Mr. Wentworth serving as another reminder of the destruction of the nation’s small independent farming community.

“It has been several decades now that we have consistently seen our bottom line erode,” said Mr. Masemore, a dairy farmer. “Inflation keeps rising; every cost we have has gone through the roof. And as price takers, not price makers, it is becoming harder and harder for small-time farms to survive.

“If you want to see what extinction looks like, this is it.”