No Reason for City to Be Pig-Headed Over Pets

I happen to live in Anaheim, and in a pig-free neighborhood. I’d like to keep it that way too.

But if any of my neighbors, heaven forbid, decided they just had to have one of those critters to round out their happy home, I don’t want an arm of the law to swoop in and say no.

Even pigs deserve some rights.

Potbellied pigs are a hot issue in Anaheim right now. If you happen to see a bit of commotion in front of Anaheim City Hall during the noon hour today, that’s what it’s all about. A group of potbellied pig owners will be demonstrating, with pigs in tow. The Anaheim City Council will vote tonight on whether they may be kept as pets.

You see, there’s an ordinance in Anaheim that prohibits farm animals if the residential lot you live on is smaller than an acre. Hogs are out, for sure. But city leaders interpret the law to include the potbellied, miniature kind. Frankly, I don’t see it that way; you can’t buy them in the fresh meat section at Ralphs or Albertsons.

But the law is the law.

So when Cher Houston’s little porker, Mu Shu, rankled one of her neighbors last summer, Anaheim’s pig patrollers kicked into high gear. They issued Houston a citation. And told her to get rid of her pig.

It turns out there are at least 150 potbellied pig owners in Anaheim--most don’t own more than two--and they’re all in danger of losing their pets. So pig lovers have organized and proposed an amendment to the city’s ordinance which would redefine the miniatures as a “companion” instead of a “farm” animal.

That did not impress members of the city’s Planning Commission. The commissioners not only said no, they recommended a plan to force miniature-pig lovers to get rid of this livestock within 90 days if the City Council agrees.

Houston and her neighbor have settled their differences. (Mu Shu’s bathroom habits had been the problem.) But I can see how these animals can be a handful. I watched the potbellies at the Orange County Fair last year and cringed as they restlessly destroyed anything in their path as they searched for food.

“Aren’t they just darling?” others around me said.

Aren’t they so fat? I kept thinking. A pig lover I am not. And if I lived next to Cher Houston, I wouldn’t hesitate to speak up if her pig gave me any lip.

But just about any type of pet, except maybe goldfish, can create a neighborhood problem. Where I live, if the dog next door starts barking at night, it leads to yapping from the dog on the other side. Suddenly it’s a marathon, with all the neighborhood dogs howling until their throats are sore. I don’t like it at all; but since the first dog usually starts barking at something one of my cats did, it’s hard for me to complain.

Surely there is some middle ground for lawmakers short of prohibition.

I can’t see potbellied pigs being any worse than large dogs. We have ordinances on the books prohibiting pets of any kind from creating a disturbance. That seems like adequate protection to me. When it comes to neighbor-vs.-neighbor complaints, potbellied pigs have to rank well below things like partying, window-breaking, and someone next door filching your newspaper.

You can’t say city lawmakers had potbellied pigs in mind when they created the no-farm-animals ordinance. It was adopted in 1893, and potbellies didn’t become popular in America until the 1980s. They are actually Vietnamese pigs, imported first to Canada. Their popularity here migrated from our northern neighbors.

That information comes from a Southern California group called Pigs Without Partners. It finds homes for potbellies. The group says about half the cities in the Southland have ordinances similar to Anaheim’s. One of its organizers, Nancy Peponis of Santa Monica, will be on hand at today’s rally with one of her potbellies, Priscilla.

“We aren’t against regulation of our animals, but you can do that without taking them away from us,” she said. “They make great pets, and they’re highly intelligent. We’ve known miniature pigs that can even make marks to spell their own names.”

The city staff has recommended against the pigs, partly because staff researchers show there is a problem with the pigs being abandoned. But that doesn’t seem reason enough to me to ban them.

The staff also fears they can be a danger to little children. But you could say that about half the animals in my neighborhood. I agree with Houston, who said about her Mu Shu: “She is no more a farm animal than a Labrador retriever is a wolf.”

So let’s hope we see a little open-mindedness tonight by the Anaheim City Council. Partners Without Pigs says it won’t oppose added regulations such as licensing, and requiring spaying and neutering. That seems fair. Here is one time when government needs to back off.

Besides, maybe Mu Shu can’t spell her name, but she’s proven she can clean up her act.

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Jerry Hicks’ column appears Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday. Readers may reach Hicks by calling the Times Orange County Edition at (714) 966-7823 or by fax to (714) 966-7711, or e-mail to jerry.hicks@latimes.com