Two NoBull Solutions partners are now sitting in jail after
operating an ultrasounding service on farms in Pennsylvania. Rusty Herr, 43 and
Ethan Wentworth, 33 were booked to prison, Herr to the Lancaster County on April 11, while Wentworth, 33, was sent to
the York County Prison on April 10th.
Herr and Wentworth are partners in NoBull Solutions, LLC and
provide an ultrasounding service to dairy farmers and horse owners as part of
their business.
The Lancaster Farming story reported that Veterinarians have
made multiple complaints about “the illegal practice of veterinary medicine by
unlicensed individuals employed by NoBull Solutions,” according to a complaint
filed with the Department of State in 2020 by the Pennsylvania Veterinary Medicine
Association. The complaint alleges that people employed by NoBull were doing
ultrasounds and making diagnoses. The document cites reports from veterinary
association members and posts on Facebook. In 2010, Herr was ordered to pay a
$3,500 fine and to cease and desist from the unlicensed practice of veterinary
medicine. Wentworth got a cease-and-desist order in 2018 along with a $3,000
civil penalty. The 2020 complaint alleges that Herr and Wentworth continued to
practice veterinary medicine without a license and hired others to do the same.
Sherry Bunting wrote in her AgMoo’s blog that With this
enforcement, the state is essentially considering pregnancy a disease even
though federal courts have found, in humans, pregnancy is a condition, not a
disease, and even though the Veterinary
Medicine Practice Act in Pennsylvania does not mention pregnancy, but
latitude is given to the State Board. No definition of diagnosis nor mention of
pregnancy or ultrasound appears in the Board
Regulations.
According to Bunting’s blog, Wentworth was told to go to the
Courthouse (in York) on the morning of April 10 to pay a fine. He was told he
would see a judge. Instead, he was arrested, and seven days later has still not
seen a judge, according to friend and associate Ben Masemore, a dairy farmer
associated with a sister business NoBull Sires LLC. Herr was arrested the very
next morning, April 11, at 6:30 a.m. at his home in Christiana. He was
handcuffed and taken away in front of his wife and children, says Masemore in
a Farmshine phone interview.
Bunting reported, the lead attorney for Herr and Wentworth, Robert Barnes, said the arrest warrants were
not facially valid because they did not come from a court.
You can read a comprehensive story by Bunting HERE.
An online NoBull
Solutions Defense Fund has also been established to free Herr and
Wentworth from prison at https://www.givesendgo.com/nobull?utm_source=sharelink&utm_medium=copy_link&utm_campaign=nobull