Animal Control Call: 'This One Is Definitely Different'

Urban farming is a growing trend, but it usually involves a few backyard chickens or a community vegetable garden.

In Dearborn Thursday, animal control officers used to dealing with stray cats and dogs and nuisance wildlife like opossums and raccoons needed a stock trailer instead of cages to contain the animals.

The Detroit News reports officers found a mini-farm in an industrial area in the southeastern part of Dearborn near Detroit’s border.

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“They received a call about animals being kept in a yard,” Lt. Doug Topolski told the newspaper. “When they went to investigate, they found six cows, two calves and three pigs.”

The farm animals were being kept in a large pen surrounded by semi-trailers. The owner apparently moved them to the industrial area after losing livery privileges on a farm where they had been.

Topolski said the city occasionally gets calls about lambs and goats raised in garages by individuals who plan to slaughter them later, “but this one is definitely different.”

The owner was given five days to find new accommodations for the cattle and pigs.