City to decide if pigs are welcome as pets

Eric Leake and Dan Kulin

Tuesday, Jan. 4, 2005 | 11:06 a.m.

Penelope probably won't be attending the North Las Vegas City Council meeting that should decide her fate.

"She's afraid of cracks in the sidewalk," said Connie Christofferson. "She's all right until she notices them. Then she looks down and starts squealing."

Christofferson thinks the sidewalks outside and the crowd at council meeting would be too traumatic for Penelope -- full name Penelope Petunia -- Christofferson's 5-year-old pot-bellied pig.

The North Las Vegas City Council is set to vote Wednesday on an ordinance that would allow Penelope and other pot-bellied pigs to be kept in residential zones with special permits.

Christofferson, 26, said she didn't know she was prohibited from keeping Penelope when she moved from eastern Tropicana Avenue to North Las Vegas a year ago.

She said the pig is clean, smart, quirky, almost always in the house where she has her own room, and never causes problems.

A neighbor complained, animal control was called, and now, Christofferson said, she's making arrangements to send Penelope, whom she calls Nelly, away to a shelter if the ordinance isn't approved.

"Oh, I'd hate to see Nelly go," she said. "She's my baby. She's been a part of my family for five years."

Christofferson took the issue to the City Council and Councilwoman Stephanie Smith helped bring it up for consideration.

"I have no conflict because I don't eat pork," Smith joked of the item.

She said that because the ordinance would require a special-use permit, the city would retain some control over any potential problems.

North Las Vegas currently allows pot-bellied pigs on ranch estates and so long as the pig meets specific criteria, much the same as those permitting pigs as pets in Las Vegas, Henderson, and Clark County.

Pot-bellied pigs must be kept more than 10 feet from a property line, no more than 120 pounds or 22 inches tall, neutered or spayed, and registered. Only one pig is allowed on lots smaller than a half acre.

City Manager Gregory Rose said the same would apply to residential zones, if approved, but only with a permit by the city planning commission. The price of that permit is unclear, though special-use permits usually cost $400.

Rose said he has had a few calls about the proposal. "The types of complaints that I've received from citizens so far is the smell that is produced by these animals," he said.

That is what worries Christofferson's neighbor Edward Tellis, though other aren't so concerned.

Tellis was hanging lights on his home the week before Christmas when he says he smelled something odd coming from Christofferson's yard.

"I look over the fence, think, 'Darn, that thing's smelling,' " Tellis said. "Here was this big old pig walking around."

As he sat in his new and very neat North Las Vegas home, Tellis said he does not want to go into his backyard in the summer and smell warm pig stench.

"It's enough problem with the stench coming from down there," he said, referring to RC Farms pig farm, "but then next door?"

Tellis's idea of a suitable domestic pet is a dog or a cat, "And that's as far as it goes. No snakes or nothing like that."

But Todd Jones also lives next door to Christofferson and said the pig isn't outside very often and causes few problems, odorous or otherwise, as far as he can tell.

"It's pretty neat. It seems like a good house pet," he said. "That pig isn't bothering anybody. The dogs make more noise than the pig."

He said he had never previously known anyone to have a pig as a pet.

"The first time I went over there I couldn't believe it," he said.

Marc Scott lives a few doors down from the pig and said he also has no problem with it, because "a pig is just as clean as some other animals so long as you keep them clean."

Pot-bellied pigs were a pet fad about a decade ago, said veterinarian Mayling Chinn. She cared for exotic and farm animals in Utah before moving to the VCA Decatur Animal Hospital, where she seldom sees pot-bellied pigs.

People sometimes bought pot-bellied pigs not knowing the care they require or that they're not welcomed everywhere, Chinn said, and a lot of pigs suffered.

Chinn said pot-bellied pigs are emotional and intelligent, but that people need to understand no matter how cute they may be, "they're still a pig."