“Our family is devastated,” Michelle Kropp wrote in a post on her Facebook group, Save Eli the Pot Belly Pig. A photo showed Kropp’s two daughters tearfully embracing the black-and-white pot-bellied pig inside their home.
The situation came to light in March, after bylaw officials in Strathcona County were notified that the pig was living with the family. A bylaw ticket was issued in June alleging Eli’s presence in the home violated a bylaw prohibiting people from keeping livestock within municipal boundaries.
Kropp contested the ticket, arguing the pig was a pet, not livestock. She told the Journal in August that Eli had been living in Sherwood Park for years, and has never lived in a rural area.
“The court did not take into account our argument that Eli is not livestock because they see a pig as a pig,” Krupp told the Journal in a Facebook message after Monday’s decision. “No consideration that a wolf is a dog, or a tiger is a cat. Or, most importantly, livestock has a purpose such as meat, and clearly this is not the case (with Eli).”
Kropp said she received permission to have Eli in the home from a bylaw official in Strathcona County before buying a house there, and has obtained letters from federal and provincial government agriculture officials saying pot-bellied pigs are not classified as livestock.
Monday’s provincial court decision means Kropp will have to pay a $100 fine for violating the bylaw, and then remove Eli from her family’s home. A statement released by Strathcona County after the hearing said the county “continues to be hopeful the pot-belly pig’s owner will choose to voluntarily relocate the pig to meet the bylaw requirements.”
The statement says if Eli isn’t voluntarily relocated, the county will continue with another court application to force the move. No date has been set for Eli’s removal.
“Eli will be with us for Christmas and that is as far ahead as I have the heart to tell my girls,” Kropp told the Journal.
She has asked the county consider granting Eli a special permit on the grounds that he is a therapy animal.
A Change.org petition asking the family be allowed to keep Eli has garnered more than 15,000 signatures, and there are more than 1,500 people in the Save Eli the Pot Belly Pig Facebook group. Some members of the group posted emotional responses to the decision on Monday evening, calling it “cruel,” “heartbreaking” and a “tragedy.”
Last fall, a family in Jasper was allowed to keep their pot-bellied pig, Piglet, after a judge ruled the animal was kept for domestic purposes, and not livestock. Town officials in Strathmore are drafting a proposal that could allow a girl to keep her pet pig, Chuckles, as a therapy animal.
(Edmonton Journal - Nov 18, 2014)
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