260 Chickens Seized From Elk Grove Property

ELK GROVE (CBS13) — More than 200 chickens are in the care of Elk Grove Animal Control, after a day-long operation to seize the birds, found malnourished and living in filthy conditions.

Elk Grove Animal Control officers spent Thursday rounding up the birds one by one on a rural property on Waterman Road. They called outside agencies to help.

Randy Ximenez works next to the property where the animal control operation took place.

"Yeah they were here serious business," Ximenez said. "And it was kind of odd because we were noticing that the animal control came like in the middle of the night, with floodlights, and they wanted to check things out. I wondered what they were doing out here. The following day they came out with their whole crew."

Ximenez watched the officers, as they caught 260 chickens, one by one.

"Overwhelming," Ximenez said.

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The structure the birds had been living in looks like a maze of chicken coops where roosters and hens were housed together.

The owner is a Vietnam veteran who was raising the birds as part of his therapy. Be became ill and unable to care for them, and the flock grew larger and larger, hatching more and more chicks.

An animal control spokesperson would not comment on the seizure but said a hearing is set for the owner to attempt to get the birds back.

Ximenez says he and others tried helping care for some of the birds by building additional chicken coops.

"People got together, they pitched in, they had Home Depot donate materials," Ximenez said. "And we re-housed probably about 50 birds."

Ximenez says they simply couldn't care for them all, leading someone to call fowl, and animal control.

Now the Elk Grove animal shelter is housing the birds.