Cities’ Pet Peeves : The Popularity of Owning Exotic Animals Is Prompting Officials to Adopt Regulations

A cougar in an Irvine bedroom. A tiger on a Santa Ana porch. Sharks in a back-yard pool in Orange. Pot-bellied pigs in Costa Mesa.

Whether owned by humans who hanker for the exotic side of Mother Nature or by yuppies seeking a new status symbol, pets in Orange County have included the wild, rare and weird. But under an ordinance upheld in the city of Orange last week, trendy pets such as miniature farm animals and boa constrictors more than 6 feet long had better run, or slither, for cover.

After a year’s consideration, the Orange Planning Commission voted last week to retain the city’s ordinance, making pygmy goats, pot-bellied pigs and miniature horses on small lots, among other unusual pets, taboo in most residential areas.

The matter is scheduled to go before the City Council next month, but so far officials say keeping exotic animals in an urban setting poses a nuisance to neighbors and is unfair to the animals.

The debate is a new issue in Orange, but the status of exotic pets elsewhere has long been bandied about among city officials, breeders, vets and owners of the creatures.

“Unfair? They’re not eating them you know,” said Raena Barry, executive administrator of the National Committee on Pot-Bellied Pigs in Moorpark, Calif.

“I mean the true pet people are great, they treat the pigs like kings and queens. (The pigs) love being in the house and they love people, so it’s not cruel. No way,” Barry said.

Dr. Walter Rosskopf, an exotic-animal veterinarian for the Avian and Exotic Animal Practice Clinic in Fountain Valley, regularly treats 15 pot-bellied pigs and five pygmy goats in Orange County. Rosskopf said miniature goats, and especially pot-bellied pigs, make ideal house pets.

Vietnamese and Chinese pot-bellied pigs stand about a foot tall, weigh from 30 to 200 pounds, and sport bristly black fur and bellies that nearly drag on the ground.

“These little pigs for centuries were kept in China in people’s houses. They are not, in my opinion, farm animals,” Rosskopf said. “I think the people that are legislating against it are just not animal people. They have no understanding of them.”

Throughout the county and state, many cities in recent years have been convinced that they should change ordinances to accommodate people who want to keep the small pigs as pets, Barry said. Santa Barbara, San Francisco, Chula Vista and Palo Alto all permit pot-bellied pigs.

Sometimes the animals do the talking.

Three years ago, Barney, a well-behaved pygmy goat residing in Costa Mesa, marched down to City Hall--along with his owners--and inspired the City Council to allow pygmy goats and later pot-bellied pigs as unusual pets. While normal-size livestock are prohibited, residents can keep up to four pets and obtain a permit for mini-animals for about $15, said animal control officer Robert O’Brien.

“We wouldn’t want to give someone a permit where we thought it would be an unhappy life for the animal,” O’Brien said. “We try to use common sense.”

But whether an exotic animal would have a good home or not, many other cities forbid “designer pets” in urban neighborhoods. Neighbors in Irvine who sighted a mountain lion in one resident’s bedroom window called animal control officials and the cat was removed. Unless neighbors complain, however, city officials often are unaware that the animals exist.

“We have had people come in trying to seek permits (for miniature and exotic animals) and I’m pretty sure they do have (the animals) anyway,” said Eugene Hanna of Irvine Animal Control. “Out of sight, out of mind, as they say. . . . We can’t go door to door and ask if they have an exotic pet.”

An Irvine ordinance prohibits exotic animals, except large snakes, in residences. Farm animals are prohibited in residential areas of Fountain Valley, city officials said.

Dana Point, which incorporated in 1989, still largely follows county animal codes and has no length restriction for snakes, a city code enforcement official said. As for pygmy goats and pot-bellied pigs: “I don’t know,” a spokeswoman said. “Nobody’s ever asked.”

In Huntington Beach, where animal codes were last updated in 1976, no wild or poisonous animals are allowed outside the owner’s residence. Theoretically, a resident can own an elephant, as long as it’s kept indoors, a spokeswoman said.

Santa Ana has the “most liberal (animal) laws in Orange County,” according to Jerry Ayres, supervisor of Animal Control for the city. The laws, however, were slightly tightened 25 years ago after Angela, a 450-pound Bengal tiger, was found roosting comfortably on a second-story balcony in a home in northeast Santa Ana. When visitors came up the walk, Angela would leap down to “welcome” them.

While Angela never got into trouble, concerned neighbors “prompted the city to pass wild-animal codes restricting what can be kept in the city,” Ayres said.

In Santa Ana, owners of exotic animals who have state permits can also apply to the city for a permit. A 1979 state law prohibits new owners from acquiring big cats, but owners who acquired them before 1979 were allowed to keep them. Farm animals, miniature or otherwise, may be kept without a permit as long as they are kept 100 feet from other residential buildings.

“Personally, I do not feel that farm-type animals should be kept in residential settings,” Ayres said. “But that’s not the city’s opinion.”

It was Santa Ana’s sympathetic animal ordinance that first drew Christina, 33, who asked that her last name be withheld, to move to town with Sheik, an ocelot.

Sheik, a spotted, nocturnal, 30-pound wild cat, eats raw chicken legs in a covered pen in Christina’s back yard.

“Looking at her is like looking at something three-dimensional rather than the more muted domestic animals,” said Christina, who also owns three rabbits, two house cats and two aquariums full of fish.

Veterinarian Lorrie Blackburn of Orange Park Acres, who treats and owns pot-bellied pigs and pygmy goats, warned that unusual pets are not for everyone.

“Some people do this as a passing fancy and that’s sad for any animal,” Blackburn said. “Those who want them in the city may find it takes more dedication than they’re willing to give it.”

Kathy Lovell, a Costa Mesa resident who is allergic to cats and dogs, bought her pot-bellied pig, Truffles, as a surprise for her family. In a house that keeps time by a pig-shaped clock, Truffles is queen.

“She just comes in (to the living room) at night and grunts and complains until my husband sits on the floor so she can sit on his lap,” Lovell said.

Dana Point resident Judith Henderson and her family adopted Wally, a pygmy goat, about a year ago. A silver, black and white animal that stands a foot and a half tall, Wally comes when called, sleeps in the doghouse and likes a bit of bagel for breakfast.

“It’s ‘Wally’s World’ here,” Henderson said.

Despite the new ordinance in Orange, owners of exotic pets there may still be able to keep them. The Orange City Council has made special exceptions in the past.

Four years ago, Orange council members pardoned eight small sharks, allowing them to stay in a saltwater tank in a resident’s back yard (the sharks have since been voluntarily removed). And last year, B.C., a 10-foot-long Colombian red-tail, was allowed a “snake conditional-use permit,” although he exceeded city size limits by four feet.

If the latest trends are any indication, city officials should be prepared for the next generation of designer animals. Llamas, ostriches and emus are on the upswing in Los Angeles and Northern California, exotic pet vet Rosskopf said, and the fad is likely to filter down to Orange County.

Times correspondents Rose Apodaca, Mary Anne Perez, John Penner and Len Hall contributed to this story.