So this is not me but my sister going through this situation.

My sister lives in a rural area and has(had?)multiple animals on her 5 acres. She had a donkey, 3 goats, her dog and her daughters 2 adult dogs and 4 puppies. Too many dogs, yes, but getting rid of them has been incredibly difficult and not really the primary concern as the dogs were due to leave the property this week as the daughter moved and was in process of taking everything to the new house over the weekend.

Friday 8/23 the puppies broke through the wooden privacy fence and killed some of the neighbors chickens. Accepted responsibility and offered to compensate for the lost birds. Told to keep the dogs in a mandatory quarantine for 2 weeks. We set up a kennel in the pole barn for them to stay as directed until the alloted time had passed and them move them to the new home, as instructed by animal control. The dogs could not escape from this fully metal structure unless a human were to release them.

Today while my sister was home someone entered the property, let the dogs out, then called animal control. They show up and give her a written correction action plan with a due date of 9/9, and explain why they were there. My sister showed them that the only way the dogs could have escaped their enclosures was by human intervention. And by this time the dogs had already been wrangled and returned to their pens.

The animal controls officer called in backup and sat in her driveway for 5 hours trying to obtain a warrant to seize the animals. They refused to allow anyone on or off the property while they obtained said warrant. They were continually threatening to charge my sister if she didn't willfully surrender all animals on site. Once they finally received the warrant they took every animal including her 6 year old(elderly) turkey.

It doesn't seem right that they can see the property as ok enough to write a correction notice but then turn around the same day said notice is issued and take the animals. They never even left the property. It's not like they got another call that same day.

I'm been on farms all my life and I've never seen animal control take animals the same day a correction notice is issued. And as a volunteer I have seen many places waaayyy worse in terms of husbandry and the animals were left.

I'm honestly confused and lost.

Edit to note that we do have an appointment with a lawyer Friday. Hoping to get a little internet insight.