A Lansing man tells his side of the story after officers seized dozens of farm animals, dogs and marijuana plants from his property on the city's south-west side.
Animal control officials say during the search, more than 80 chickens were found.
That's a violation of a county ordinance.
Officers from Ingham County Animal Control say they have been receiving complaints since June about livestock being housed on a property.
The owner of the property told FOX 47 he was only trying to provide organic food to his family and neighbors.
“I grew this chicken,” Clarence Walker says as he raised up an uncooked frozen whole chicken.
“I grew this chicken and I know this chicken clean. I know what this chicken ate. We even give our chickens baths every two weeks.”
Tuesday afternoon, officials from ICAC seized 82 chickens, four ducks, five dogs and one turkey from the property.
Clarence Walker says he was warned last week to remove the animals by Monday.
“So we secured a property over the weekend and got in there and we were building our pens and stuff for all of our animals,” Walker explained.
“Monday, when they came out, I told them like the goats were already gone. We were able to build the goat pens over the weekend and the goats were already there, and I told them that we were building all the chicken coops and that we were going to move all the chickens there too.”
Walker says he plans to get his animals back and that he will do whatever it takes to get in compliance with animal control officials.
According to ICAC, the dogs they took in during the search put the shelter at capacity.
Adoption fees have been reduced to help clear the shelter.
FOX 47 reached out to the Lansing Police Department, which declined to comment on the investigation.
