Pet Pig Permitted To Stay With Owners In Morton Grove Home

MORTON GROVE, IL — Village officials have reached an agreement that allows a Morton Grove family to keep a pig as a pet despite a local ordinance prohibiting farm animals.

Cotton, a 6-year-old miniature pig, will be permitted to continue living in the Morton Avenue home of her owners, subject to a series of conditions, according to a court order issued Tuesday at an administrative adjudication hearing.

The Minx family adopted Cotton in 2014. The domesticated Juliana pig is microchipped, litter-trained and spayed. Last month, a neighbor filed a complaint, and Tracy Minx was issued a citation for a violation of the village's ban on keeping livestock.

According to an online petition started by pig owner Storm Minx, granddaughter of village trustee Rita Minx, the family had never received any complaints about the pig until recently.

"To whoever my neighborhood Karen might be, I suggest you seek therapy before turning to the police for every little problem that you deem unfit by your societal standards," said Minx's petition, which had garnered more than 9,000 signatures as of Tuesday.

Village Administrator Ralph Czerwinski and Tracy Minx signed an agreed order and stipulated a settlement to resolve three citations for keeping chickens and a pig on the property and for a neighbor dispute.

According to a statement from Czerwinski's office, the family agreed to move the chickens and pay a "late compliance fine" prior to the hearing.

Village staff said the swine's "special circumstances" justified allowing it to remain on the property as long as it follows the terms of the agreement.

"Removing the pig from the Property is not reasonably feasible and would distress [Minx] and her family and endanger the health of the pig," the family asserted, according to the hearing officer's order.

The order only applies to Cotton and makes no change to existing ordinances defining pigs as "farm animals" along with cows, sheep and goats.

RELATED: Joliet Family 'Ecstatic' About Pot-Bellied Pig Ordinance

The village code defines "domestic animals" as "animals commonly considered as house pets," which includes cats, dogs and ferrets. The village code does not differentiate between domesticated and non-domesticated animals, other than feral cats.

The code prohibits: "any farm animals, bees, fowl, poisonous snakes or boa constrictors, or other living creatures normally wild, dangerous to human life, or carnivorous in nature, other than domesticated house pets."

Instead of determining that Cotton was a "domesticated house pet" as defined in the code, the agreed order determines that Tracy Minx is liable for violating the ordinance and could be made to pay the fine if the terms of the settlement are violated.

In addition removing all pig excrement on a daily basis, not getting another pig and keeping Cotton out of her front yard or the public way, Tracy Minx agreed to provide a signed statement from the pig's veterinarian attesting to its general health and finding that the "pig and its current environment do not currently pose a threat to the pig or to other animals or people."