Yarmouth family's pet pig dreams dashed by town council

A family in Yarmouth, N.S., is disappointed after town council dashed its dream of getting a pet pot-bellied pig.

David Lumini says his 10-year-old daughter has wanted to get a pot-bellied pig since she was a toddler.

"Since at least four years old, anyway. She's always had this love for pot bellied pigs and pigs in general," he told the CBC's Mainstreet.

Lumini said her love of pigs may have been inspired in part by a cartoon called Gravity Falls, which features a pig named Waddles.

The family lived in Brampton, Ont., at the time, which they felt was not the right environment to raise a pig. But when they moved to Yarmouth, they thought it might be a possibility.

Council rejects amendment

They read the town's bylaws, which prohibit livestock within town limits. But they decided to pursue their option of making an amendment to the bylaw to have pot-bellied pigs receive the same treatment as dogs.

Town council held a public hearing and voted on the proposed amendment on Oct. 10.

"We made the application, we did our research, we went to council meetings and the unfortunate thing is it turned out to be a no," Lumini said.

Lumini said the family needed four councillors to vote in favour, but only three were in support of the amendment.

He said one councillor made a poll on Facebook to gauge public sentiment on the issue and 83 per cent of people who voted were in favour of allowing pot-bellied pigs.

Family disappointed

Lumini said his family, including his daughter, was disappointed with the decision.

"She was quite sad," he said.

But the family had another idea — a sort of downsized porcine plan.

"Right after the council meeting took place, we came home and told her the decision of council, she said, 'So does this mean that we're going to go to Saint John and pick up guinea pigs this weekend?' And I said, 'Yeah, I guess so!'"

The family has since welcomed two new guinea pigs, Marshmallow and Brnilla.