Don't F*** With Cats

Disturbing animal cruelty at an Elkhart County factory

On June 13, 2025 charges against three men, who admitted to putting cats in a trash compactor, were dropped.

Let’s start at the very beginning (it’s a very fine place to start).

On February 27, a Middlebury Police Officer, Ptl. Yutzy, arrived to Jayco RV, a recreational vehicle manufacturer in Middlebury, Indiana, to investigate a report that employees were placing cats in the trash compactor. He spoke with three men; Arlin Hochstetler, John Lipscomb, and Travis McKay. The three men each told Yutzy that yes, it was true. They put two cats in two separate boxes, taped the boxes shut, and placed the boxes in the trash compactor while the cats were still alive. They said they were trying to “take care” of the nuisance cats on the property and “the animal shelters were full.” Also on this February 27 visit, Yutzy spoke with Devon Miller, VP of Operations for Jayco and according to Yutzy, Miller said the employees acted “in the best interest of the company.”

On June 9, nearly four months after Yutzy took the report, charges were filed against the three men by the Elkhart County Prosecutor’s Office. All three were charged with two counts of torturing or mutilating a vertebrate animal, a class 6 felony.

Just four days later, on June 13, the charges were dropped after the prosecutor filed motions to dismiss. They were dismissed without prejudice, meaning charges could be filed again.

According to a statement released to the media by Elkhart County Prosecutor, Vicki Becker, an error in the Probable Cause Affidavits led to the charges being dismissed. The error apparently relates to the quote from Devon Miller. When charges were filed on June 9 and Miller’s quote became public, Miller told the prosecutor he never said that.

“However, that phrase is not accurate as there is no evidence documented in the police investigation to suggest that Mr. Miller endorsed, or approved of, the decisions or the behaviors of the three employees.” — Vicki Becker, Elkhart County Prosecutor

As a result of that “scrivener’s error” as Becker describes it, charges were dropped so further investigation could be conducted.

At the end of her statement, Becker places the blame on social media.

“Once again, the detrimental and injurious effect of social media opining and premature conclusions is resulting in a social media frenzy that is wholly inappropriate.” — Vicki Becker, Elkhart County Prosecutor

This statement is quite puzzling for a few reasons. First, Devon Miller was not charged with anything. Yet the statement seems to be designed to clear Devon Miller of any wrongdoing and does not go into any detail about how the “error” was made. Second, there is no explanation for the four month delay in charging these men when they explicitly told the officer what they did on February 27 or why the charges seem to hinge on Miller’s alleged misquote. Third, there is no mention in the entire statement about the charges, the alleged actions of the three men, or her intention to charge them again. Finally, to blame social media for a “frenzy” when no one on social media is responsible for the actions of these men, the writing of the police report or affidavits seems like a cheap excuse.

When a prosecutor is bringing charges, they want to make sure those charges stick. If they have to dismiss charges to correct an error, they will. However, the statement will usually read something like, “due to the horrendous nature of the allegations, we will take no unnecessary risk, so we will correct this error and are committed to prosecuting these individuals.” Becker said nothing of the sort.

Becker seems to be far more concerned with the social media dragging of Miller’s character and the liberty of the accused.

“As the Prosecuting Attorney is awaiting the results of that additional investigation, which has impacted the veracity of the original charging decision, a Motion to Dismiss each case was filed before anyone’s liberty was affected by an arrest.” — Vicki Becker, Elkhart County Prosecutor

Becker seems to be the only person surprised by the “social media frenzy” she references in her statement. I guess she never watched the Netflix documentary Don’t F*** With Cats. The internet does not tolerate animal cruelty.

The tone of the entire statement and placing the blame on social media is guaranteed to turn that “frenzy” up to 11.