metro
Seized!
Detroit couple fight
confiscation of animals.
Barbara Lewis
Contributing Writer
D
avid and Sky Brown had high
hopes for creating an idyllic urban
farm when they bought a small,
rundown house near McNichols and
Telegraph in northwest Detroit last spring.
They moved in in June and hung a sign
in the front welcoming visitors to "Kibbutz
Detropia." They built a pen in the large
backyard and bought three baby pygmy
goats, which they named Idan, Raichel and
Sarai, and six young chickens, one of which
recently laid her first egg. They planned a
vegetable garden.
They hoped to convince friends to buy
neighboring vacant properties to farm and
join them in communal enterprises.
But their hopes were dashed on Oct.
22 when a Detroit animal control offi-
cer removed the animals and served the
Browns with two criminal complaints for
violating a city ordinance.
The ordinance forbids the "owning,
harboring, keeping, maintaining, selling
or transferring of farm or wild animals"
although exceptions can be made for cir-
cuses, zoos and "other approved activities:'
The Browns are marshalling support to
become one of those "other approved activi-
ties:'
The Browns say they had no advance
notice when a Detroit Animal Control
officer arrived and told them she was tak-
ing the animals and they'd never see them
again.
The couple offered to remove the animals
themselves and take them to a farm outside
the city As they loaded
the animals into their car,
the animal control officer
called the police. The police
were polite, but they made
the Browns turn over the
animals. The animal control
officer refused to say where
she was taking them.
The Browns contacted
their city council representa-
tive, James Tate, but got no
response. City council mem-
ber Gabe Leland, who repre-
sents a neighboring district,
offered to help and learned
that the animals were at a
Sky and David Brown in front of their sukkah built from twigs and branches
shelter in Rochester Hills.
"Here's an example of
people who move to Detroit,
the University of Massachusetts and
used water for the lawn and vegetable gar-
interested in cultivating the land, and they
plans to take the Michigan Bar exam in
den they hope to have next summer.
become a target," Leland said. "The actions
February. She is active in the new Jewish
They're hosting a member of WOOF
of that animal control officer are not indica- Bar Association of Michigan. She met her
— Worldwide Opportunities on Organic
tive of the way most Detroiters feel."
husband through a website dedicated to
Farms — who lives in an RV parked outside
Leland said he is working with the city's
aerial silks.
their house and trades work for food.
corporate counsel, Melvin Butch Hollowell,
The Browns say they don't know why
When their goats matured, they planned
to create a temporary ordinance that would
Detroit Animal Control was interested
to use their milk to make cheese and beauty
allow the Browns to keep their animals. He
in them. There are only a few inhabited
products. They hoped the hens would pro-
said he'd like to see the law revised to allow
houses on their block, they said, and they
duce eggs they could sell.
more small farms in the city.
have friendly relationships with all their
At the end of October, the Browns
David Brown, 33, grew up in Bloomfield
neighbors.
learned that the U.S. Department of
Hills and graduated from the Cranbrook
When they moved in, they said, they
Agriculture had gotten involved, insisting
School and Oberlin College in Ohio. His
hoped to create something combining the
that the goats be taken to a facility where
primary occupation is circus performance:
ideals of an Israeli kibbutz and a hippie
they could be screened and tagged for scar-
fire breathing, juggling and aerial silks,
commune.
pie, a disease similar to mad cow disease.
acrobatic tricks done while hanging from
They spent most of the summer spruc-
Sky Brown found some farms willing
a long strip of fabric. He has taught circus
ing up their house, which needed extensive
to take the goats in and tag them and for-
skills at the Jewish Community Center.
repairs. They installed a composting toilet
warded the information to the USDA, but
Sky Brown, 34, has a law degree from
and a gray-water system, which recycles
she has been unable to get a clear answer
from any government official about what
will happen to her animals.
"This entire thing has been an emotional
roller coaster, and I'd like to get it taken
care of soon. It astounds me that the federal
government really cares about me and three
baby pygmy goats:' she said.
"I have been told by numerous city
officials that the ordinance will most likely
be changed and that it is even probable
that an emergency exception will be made
to protect people in my position until the
cumbersome process of changing the law
actually happens," she said.
"I am not ready to give up hope that one
day, my kids will be able to come home:"
❑
The Browns call their home "Kibbutz Detropia."
28
November 6 • 2014
David Brown tends his baby goats.