NoBull: 2 south-central PA men jailed by state for doing ultrasounds on cows

On May 13, 2010, the Pennsylvania State Board of Veterinary Medicine issued an order finding that the operators of NoBull Solutions – operated by Rusty Herr and Ethan Wentworth – had been practicing veterinary medicine without a license.

The company, which provided services mostly among Amish dairy farmers in southern York and Lancaster counties, had been in operation for a while.

The company offered to dairy farmers a low-cost alternative to licensed veterinarians to perform ultrasounds for pregnant cows, a step intended to confirm the success of artificial insemination to produce more cows. As one dairy farmer said, any economic advantage the operator of a small dairy farm can get the better, since small dairy farms have been choked out of existence by large operations and have been disappearing at an alarming rate.

The board ordered Hess to “CEASE and DESIST from the unlicensed practice of veterinary medicine” and imposed a fine of $3,500. “Failure to remit the civil penalty may result in further legal action,” according to the order.

On Sept. 12, 2018, the board found that Ethan Wentworth and Gideon Alphie Stoltzfus had been practicing veterinary medicine without a license and assessed a civil penalty of $3,500, warning once again that not complying with the order would result in further legal action.

Then, on Feb. 20, 2020, the Pennsylvania Veterinary Medical Association filed another complaint against NoBull and the operating partners Rusty Herr and Ethan Wentworth alleging that the association “has received multiple complaints from veterinarians about the illegal practice of veterinary medicine by unlicensed individuals employed by NoBull Solutions LLC.”

The complaint quoted the company’s Facebook page that advertised “all encompassing reproductive management” for dairy farmers. The association reported it had received reports from its members, supported by “documentary evidence” on the company’s Facebook page, that indicated that the company was performing “ultrasounds and making diagnoses” without being licensed veterinarians.

The complaint concluded, “Since these individuals continue to practice veterinary medicine without a license after their initial Order to Cease and Desist, we request that the state file contempt charges with the Commonwealth Court.”

Which is what happened.

And which landed Herr and Wentworth in jail for 30 days.

And which has attracted the legal services of a famous conservative lawyer who has taken up their cause and framed it as a case of big government violating the rights of the little guy.

'Losing dairy farms every day'

Herr and Wentworth began NoBull as an alternative to expensive veterinary services. Herr, from Christiana in southern Lancaster County, and Wentworth, from Airville in southeastern York County, felt they could provide ultrasound services for a fraction of the price charged by licensed veterinarians as a service to their mostly Amish neighbors.

The Amish, whose dairy operations were tiny compared to large, corporate operations, were already squeezed financially, and every little bit helped, said Ben Masemore, a fifth-generation dairy farmer from Barto, a rural unincorporated village in southeastern Berks County.

“We’re losing dairy farms every day,” said Masemore, who is serving as spokesman for Herr and Wentworth. “We’ve always stood by the smaller farmers. Any way to save some money, the better.”

Herr and Wentworth felt they were fulfilling that mission. They contended their business saved small dairy farms money and that, in essence, they weren’t providing veterinary services. And it wound up with them in jail.

The arrests

After years of trying to get Herr and Wentworth to stop practicing veterinary medicine without a license, the state had had enough.

The two men, according to their current attorney, had been advised by their previous lawyer not to pay the fines and, according to complaints from the veterinary association, had continued to provide their services to farmers.

In April, the state Commonwealth Court found them in contempt.

On April 10, according to a post on a fundraising website, Wentworth, a 33-year-old father of three, was told to report to the York County Judicial Center to pay a fine. “He was told he would see a judge,” the post read. “Instead, he was kidnapped, denied the right to speak to an attorney or to call his family” and taken to York County Prison.

“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,” the post read.

Herr, 43, was taken into custody at 6:30 the following morning at his home, “handcuffed and taken away in front of his wife and children” and placed in Lancaster County Prison, Masemore reported.

“The officers burst into the children’s bedrooms as they slept,” Masemore told the author of the text of the fundraising post. “The officers refused to show Rusty’s wife the warrant until after they had taken Rusty away in handcuffs. Rusty’s children were traumatized by the experience.”

Herr and Wentworth were sent to jail for 30 days for contempt of court.

Enter the celebrity lawyer

Herr and Wentworth secured the services of Los Angeles attorney Robert Barnes, a lawyer who comes with a record of taking on conservative causes.

Barnes is a self-proclaimed champion of the underdog, according to his website. His previous clients have included actor Wesley Snipes, teen shooter Kyle Rittenhouse and "professional conspiracy theorist"Infowars" host Alex Jones. He has appeared on Fox News and other conservative media outlets and is well-known in that universe.

The results of his representation have been mixed.

Snipes was acquitted of felony tax evasion and fraud charges but had been convicted on three misdemeanor tax charges that resulted in him spending 28 months in federal prison. Rittenhouse had been charged for shooting three protesters during a Black Lives Matter protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, killing two. He was acquitted. Barnes represented Jones in the defamation suit brought by parents of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School mass killing. Jones, on his show "Infowars," asserted that the parents were actors and that the shooting was faked, staged by the government. The parents won more than $1 billion from Jones.

Barnes, though, had previously represented a Lancaster County Amish farmer named Amos Miller who waged a years-long battle with authorities over the sale of raw milk, a war that resulted in more than $300,000 in fines being levied against Miller. In March, a Lancaster County judge ruled that Miller could produce raw milk if he limits distribution to his immediate family and permits the state to conduct farm inspections. Previously, according to the state, his milk was traced to two out-of-state cases of E. coli.

Barnes told Fox 43 that he agreed to represent Herr and Wentworth after being contacted by one of their wives. He told the TV station that he has “seen crazy cases” and that “this is the craziest thing I’ve ever seen.” He told the station that the men are “baffled” by their incarceration.

In a statement emailed by his assistant, Barnes was quoted as saying, “This is an unprecedented case of lawless persecution against two farmers who help other farmers with standard breeding practices, as is their right. The Pennsylvania veterinary trade organizations conspired to protect their own monopoly in violation of the law and in a manner that has hurt farmers throughout our state.

“The Pennsylvania State Department, in a secret star chamber proceeding ordered the unlawful imprisonment of Rusty Herr and Ethan Wentworth, who have still never seen an arrest warrant, heard the charges against them, had a hearing, or seen a judge - in short, their due process rights have been obliterated. I will seek justice for Wentworth, Herr, and their families to the fullest extent of the law.”

Barnes filed a motion with Commonwealth Court to have the men released. On Monday, April 29, the court denied the motion.

Herr and Wentworth remained in jail.

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'Heroes to farmers'

The Department of State has said that it is simply enforcing the law as passed by the state Legislature, that its mission is regulatory. The department referred to the judge’s order that found Herr and Wentworth had not complied with previous court orders and that their failure to comply “may result in the issuance of a warrant for their arrest and incarceration.”

And that’s what happened.

But for those in the agriculture community, Masemore said, the case is about more than adhering to state licensing regulations. It’s a matter of survival, he said, and emblematic of the pressures that are squeezing small family farms. In his grandfather’s time, he said, there were 3.5 million dairy farmers in the United States, a number that has dropped to about 25,000 in 2022, according to the U.S. Census. “We’re closing farms every day,” he said.

That Herr and Wentworth provide a service that is both more convenient and less expensive is just one thing that helps small farmers, he said. “These guys have worked in animal reproduction for a very long time,” he said. “These men’s abilities are second to none.”

The case has sparked a lot of discussion among farmers, he said.

One farmer from Eastern Lancaster County told the website Ag Moos, which covers the dairy and livestock industries, that “hundreds of farmers in the county don’t know where they would be without Rusty Herr.” Another, from Quarryville, told the website that Herr and Wentworth “are great people” and that they are “keenly missed.” A website called Midnight Crier News posted a country song about Herr and Wentworth called "The Ballad of Ethan and Rusty." (Sample lyric: Just simple farmers loving the land, but now they're in a prison.")

“Everywhere I go, people stop me and talk about the case,” Masemore said. “It’s a hot-button topic. Everybody’s commenting on it. The whole ag community is talking about this case.”

Masemore said, “They’re quite simply heroes to farmers.”

Columnist/reporter Mike Argento has been a York Daily Record staffer since 1982. Reach him at mike@ydr.com.

This article originally appeared on York Daily Record: 2 Central PA men jailed by state for doing ultrasounds on cows