Dutch Creek Farm Animal Park

SHIPSHEWANA, Ind. -- On Jan. 28, the United States Department of Justice announced Vernon D. Miller, owner of Dutch Creek Farm Animal Park, had agreed to not apply for or engage in any activity that requires a Department of Agriculture (USDA) license for two years due to dozens of violations at his Dutch Creek Farm Animal Park.

This came after a complaint filed in October 2024 alleged that Miller, individually and doing business as the Dutch Creek Farm Animal Park in Shipshewana, violated the Animal Welfare Act (AWA) by failing to provide adequate veterinary care, safe and hospitable enclosures, appropriate enrichment and sanitary housing, food and water to his animals.

The complaint also alleged that Miller had failed to maintain legally required records.

On Jan. 31, Miller's legal team released the following statement:

"Vernon Miller is pleased to put recent litigation behind him and looks forward to welcoming the public back to Dutch Creek Farm Animal Park. He wants the truth about his cases to be known as the Government’s press release and subsequent reporting are misleading and continue to harm his business by painting them in a false and negative light.

From 2008 through 2023 Dutch Creek Farm Animal Park never had a direct or critical violation of the Animal Welfare Act including a May 2023 clean and perfect inspection which allowed them a 3-year USDA license renewal. Miller only maintained a USDA license to allow him to have certain species of exotic animals, that are not typical on an Amish farm.

Four months after a perfect inspection, the USDA sent in 3 reassigned inspectors, which led to 11 more inspections of Miller’s facility in a 12-month span, which is highly unusual after so many years of compliance. We have reason to believe this increased government activity on Miller’s property was at the behest of animal rights activists universally opposed to private animal ownership.

After years of compliance, these new inspectors cited Miller’s facility for 90 alleged violations in less than a year, leading the USDA to use a federal regulation to forcibly close Miller’s family business on which he relied to support his family overnight with no due process. This was done only after they forced him to spend over $100,000 to improve the park; based on these faulty inspections.

This USDA action also prevented Miller from being able to buy, sell or transport any of his animals as winter approached. After the USDA forcibly closed his business and before the federal lawsuit was ever filed, we offered to surrender Miller’s USDA license, which he didn’t need to operate his Amish farm.

Our only stipulation was for the government to allow him to sell his animals before winter arrived. The government refused, only offering to allow Miller to surrender them to government seizure, allowing the government to take Miller’s animals with no compensation. Miller had no choice but to fight, which resulted in the federal lawsuit being filed against him and a TRO being issued before he could respond to the allegations.

The lawsuit and TRO were based on affidavits of the newly assigned USDA inspectors. While the affidavits were damaging at first sight, we were able to prove through our court filings they were misleading and inaccurate. We provided evidence from a veterinarian, a pet store owner, and local leaders showing how the information provided to the Court was erroneous.

We even provided an affidavit from a former USDA employee of evidence of targeting the Amish community by the USDA. After our submissions, the Court allowed the expiration of the TRO on December 2, 2024, over the arguments of the government, which resulted in Miller being fully licensed and able to operate.

In other words, despite what is said in the government press release, their lawsuit accomplished nothing as we offered to surrender our USDA license before the suit was ever filed. The only result of the lawsuit was the unnecessary expenditure of thousands of dollars of taxpayer money.

After this horrifying experience, Miller is understandably no longer interested in subjecting his family to being regulated by the USDA, so he sold his exotic animals and is refocusing his business on Amish agriculture. Now that he sold his exotics, he no longer needs a USDA license to share his family’s Amish farm with the public.

Vernon Miller will re-open Dutch Creek Farm Animal Park with open and loving arms to the public May 1st, 2025. He looks forward to serving his community for many more years."