Potbelly pigs still not allowed in town

Times Reporter     

  

The allowance of potbelly pigs in the community was once again a topic of discussion during a town council meeting. The matter had been brought to council originally in September 2013 for an amendment to allow the pets in Strathmore. At that time a motion was made for administration to get together with the applicant, Trevor Dahl, and Christine Campbell, from Oops-A-Dazy Animal Sanctuary, to create an amendment. 

That meeting didn’t take place in 2013 and on Oct. 1, 2014 Municipal Enforcement Officer Teresa Fuchs spoke to council about the possible amendment. 

“My recommendation would be to leave the bylaw as it stands to not allow pot belly pigs in town. One thing is that then would be opening the door for other animals to be brought into town limits,” said Fuchs. 

She did look up other municipalities to see what their bylaws are, such as Lethbridge, Beiseker, Calgary, Acme, Strathcona County and Cochrane, which do not allow potbelly pigs. Calgary did amend their bylaw in 2006 to remove it as an allowable under their bylaw.

The one municipality that does allow them is Chestermere; Fuchs contacted them, and heard they had no restrictions or limitations in their bylaw at this time. There is one potbelly pig in the community on a property near the golf course, and the only complaints have been because there is a pig in town. 

Mayor Michael Ell questioned how a municipal enforcement officer would go about restraining a potbelly, should one get lose, which is also a concern for Fuchs and her department. 

Councillor Bob Sobol feels people should know when moving into a neighbourhood that there is a potbelly pig there. 

“There lies my main concern, at the very least to allow an animal of this sort in the area I would want the neighbours to be aware that this was going to happen, but that doesn’t preclude those people from moving and new people from moving in without any knowledge that the pigs are there,” said Sobol. 

He was also concerned about the sale-ability of the property due to the rooting that the animal needs to do and the lessening of the value of the house because of potential property damages.  

Councillor Denise Peterson said it is her understanding that Calgary did allow potbelly pigs and when the bylaw was amended they grandfathered it so that the people who already had them could keep them.

She wondered if it was realistic for council to make a motion that would grandfather this particular case with consideration of the bylaw officer and then make the motion accordingly. 

“I do think that there is a place for potbelly pigs in the community, but I certainly also agree with Councillor Sobol that it’s good in communities that are growing to know that if you’re moving into a community that you could have such things as domesticated potbelly pigs and maybe hens in the future, but it would be in developments where people were well aware of what they were moving into,” said Peterson. 

The question was then raised of how something that is already not an allowable use could be grandfathered. The current bylaw reads like agricultural animals are not allowed on residential properties within town, something Dahl had also pointed out during the original discussions in 2013. 

“I think there is a level of interpretation that exists within this bylaw that maybe someday could be looked at for improvement and clarification because it wasn’t particularly clear to me. If you were raising pigs in your yard you could have bacon every Sunday morning … that’s different from what this is,” said Peterson. 

The Dahl’s pig had been removed from the property when bylaw officers heard it was back. The conversation was accepted as information with no further actions scheduled to be taken at this time.