De Blasio's Challenger For Mayor Is Hinging His Campaign On A Staten Island Therapy Pig

STATEN ISLAND, NY — Tony Avella, who represents northern Queens in the New York State Senate and plans to run for NYC mayor against incumbent Bill de Blasio in November 2017, is building his fledgling campaign on the back of Wilbur, a beleaguered therapy pig in danger of being exiled from his home in Great Kills, Staten Island.

"If elected Mayor, pigs like Wilbur wouldn't have to worry about being taken away from their family," Avella said Thursday.

That afternoon, Avella staged a dramatic press conference outside the home Wilbur shares with his owner, Cristy Matteo, and her father Thomas, who's undergoing radiation treatments for cancer and likes to rub Wilbur's belly when he's feeling rotten.

"I'm calling upon the mayor today to have some compassion for these families," Avella told the crowd of neighbors and reporters that had gathered.

"Mr. Mayor, if you don't do it, if I'm elected mayor, then I'll do it," Avella threatened.

De Blasio's office did not respond to a request for comment.

For more than nine months now, Matteo said she's been fighting orders from the city's health department to get rid of Wilbur. Pigs are on the city's list of prohibited animals because, according to the health department, "among other reasons, there is no USDA-approved rabies vaccine for pigs."

"They gave me until Jan. 31 to remove him from my home," Matteo said of Wilbur, "or they're going to come in and seize him and do whatever they want with him."

Avella is currently attempting to push a bill through the State Senate that would force NYC to come up with a more lenient policy on keeping pigs under 200 pounds as pets in the city.

"These animals are used as service animals," the senator said. "They help individuals who may have emotional distress or physical ailments, as in the case of Cristy's father, who unfortunately is suffering from cancer."

An online petition to "keep Wilbur in his Staten Island home" has racked up nearly 10,000 signatures in just 10 days. And another petition, signed by all six state politicians representing Staten Island, was sent to NYC's health commissioner Wednesday:

"These animals are intelligent," Avella said Thursday. "They're clean, despite the common perception of farm pig animals. They're also, in many cases, non-allergenic, and many of them are hairless."

But the best part of the press conference, by far, was when a neighbor named Lesley Wallace with two pigs of her own — pictured in a purple shirt at the far right of the photo below — stepped forward and dropped some history bombs on the de Blasio administration.

Back in the 1950s, she said, "pigs ran the streets of the City of New York to keep them clean — there was no Department of Sanitation back then. But things have changed. Since the 1980s, when potbelly pigs and mini pigs became popular as pets, unfortunately the laws and the codes have not kept up with modern times."

Wallace then addressed the mayor directly.

"Mayor de Blasio: Pigs are really cool animals," she said. "They really, really are. They're loving; they're funny; their personalities are just fabulous. You should really get one yourself."

Lead photo via Tony Avella/Twitter