After Town and Country Farm School closed down March 8, a number of parents and community members expressed concern over the numerous animals owned by the school that had been left at the facility.
Town and Country Farm School has multiple enclosures and pens for a variety of animals from goats to alpacas to chickens.
However, in the early morning on Friday, all the animals, except for the birds, which include geese and turkeys, had been taken from the facility grounds.
“What I can tell you is we’ve been on calls all weekend long and our officers are checking the animals’ food and water,” Raul Rodriguez, a manager with Animal Care and Control, said on April 2, when questions about the care of the animals first came to The Signal’s attention. “There’s basically a little dispute between the (two licensees of Town and Country), and the owners are coming to the property for the animals.”
Rodriguez, two weeks ago, added that if that wasn’t the case, that Animal Care and Control would ask the parties to surrender the animals and they’d be taken by animal care officials.
“But all the animals are OK,” Rodriguez said at the time. “Somebody was saying they don’t have water, but our officer confirmed they do have water. It’s an open case, but the parties are being responsible.”
Then, two weeks later, the animals had been removed from their enclosures and taken to an undisclosed location, likely due to one of the parties removing them from the site, according to individuals with knowledge on the situation.
“We can’t provide any information on the person taking care of the animals,” Don Belton, a spokeswoman with Animal Care and Control, said Thursday. “The investigation is going well and we’re still involved in it. And it could take weeks to months, we don’t know.”
After the animals had been taken, only the geese and other birds remained on the facility grounds while the mammals apparently had all been removed.
Multiple messages left with the owners and licensees of the Town and Country Farm School have yet to be returned.
