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Posted on 09/14/2009 2:17:18 AM PDT by Impy
Loopey might be an unorthodox best friend, but she's a good one. Share Fayetteville, N.C., city council turns down family's plea to keep their pet pig.
She was sweet and playful and didn't seem to notice her buddy's quirks like others did.
Now, more than a year after Loopey -- a black pet pot-bellied pig -- made fast friends with 8-year-old Anthony Pia, the autistic boy's parents are battling their city's ban on hogs.
It's been three months since Lisa Pia and Bobby Tibbetts, fearing fines from the city, removed Loopey the pig from their Fayetteville, N.C., home and took him back to the ranch where they got her.
While they plead with city leaders to allow Loopey to come home, Anthony, Tibbetts said, continues to regress into the troubling behaviors the 80-pound pig helped ameliorate.
Before they brought Loopey home, Anthony had trouble with head and hand shaking, bed-wetting, sleeping and interacting with other people. His connection to Loopey, Tibbetts said, was immediate.
(Excerpt) Read more at abcnews.go.com ...
Inserting case of government overreaching.
Autism is widespread.
“Inserting “
Interesting.
I don’t think this is “government overreaching” as much as it is a story of extremely unfriendly neighbors.
Welllll now . . .
just because there are joker pigs with lipstick heading government
is ABSOLUTELY NO
reason for real pigs to affront bureaucratic tyrannical authoritarianism.
Sheesh.
/sar
The family didn’t know there was an ordinance against farm animals? And yes, a pig is a farm animal. I’m sure a puppy would have been just as beneficial.
I’m sure you are a perfect non hypocritical example.
Not necessarily the neighbors. If the boy was ever outside with the pig it could have been noticed by animal control or law enforcement.
Hopefully the pig has a spider friend.
I’ve never lived in a city that allowed farm animals as pets and would not have one.
Years ago the Vietnamese Pot Belly Pig was being hyped as a family pet. There were several people here who bought them as pets - and were surprised when they were informed by animal control that pigs are farm animals.
Some people either just don’t think or they believe that for some reason they’re above the law.
The thread’s topic is the banning. I disagree, and I wouldn’t want to be the mayor.
There’s a reason farm animals are banned in city limits: most of them produce great quantities of very foul-smelling manure that breeds unbelievable numbers of flies and is difficult to dispose of even when the owner lives in the country. I’m a farm girl myself and I know that manure disposal and fly control are serious problems even when you just have one animal in the country. It’s unfair to impose those problems on your close-by neighbors in the city or suburbs. Pigs reek, even small pigs. It may sound amusing, but believe me, it’s not like having even a very large dog. I would pity the next-door neighbors.
The parents who brought this animal into their child’s life were foolish in the extreme. I agree that probably the right dog would have had the same positive effect. If the pig is so important to their son—and I can understand and sympathize with their predicament—then they should move to someplace where the pig won’t be a problem. Easier said than done, I know, but when you have a very fragile child you’re willing to make that sort of sacrifice.
You are right. Pigs have a filthy reputation for a good reason.
I did some work on a house out in the country once, the next door neighbor’s had a pot bellied pig that approached me just like a friendly dog does, followed me around for an hour or so begging to be scratched behind the ears then trotted back to it’s own house.
Big, bossy government rears its head again.
i would think the pig could be qualified as a service animal and therefore given special consideration.
The kid is legally handicapped isn’t he? If you can take a seeing eye dog into a grocery store then you should be able to have a pig in your own back yard.
I bet if they get a note from a doctor saying this is a beneficial treatment for the kid they could threaten to sue the city and all this will disappear.
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