Bubba the pig now has the permit that permits him to stay in Seal Beach.
Long Beach Animal Care Services recently issued a Seal Beach permit for non-domestic animals to the owners of Bubba the pig. The Long Beach agency has the contract to provide animal control services to Seal Beach.
The permit is, however, a Seal Beach permit. The City Council changed the Municipal Code to add pigs to the non-domestic animal pig following protests over another change to the code that banned pigs of all sizes and kinds from Seal Beach.
The pot bellied pig named Bubba is, as far as anyone knows, the only pig of any sort living in Seal Beach.
The permit arrived at Bubba’s owners’ home on Saturday, Feb. 15, according a post on the Save Bubba the Seal Beach Pig Facebook page.
“Bubba is officially permitted,” Madonna Kahn-Grimsley wrote on Sunday, Feb. 16.
“We had the inspection (we had to pay for that too) and passed with flying colors (of course)! Received the official permit in the mail today,” Grimsley wrote.
Bubba’s owners applied for a permit to keep the animal on Thursday, Jan. 23.
The delivery of the permit appears to end a saga that became public in October 2013.
Bubba, a Vietnamese pot bellied pig who lives on Dolphin Avenue, became the center of controversy—and a short-lived national media circus—when the City Council on Oct. 28, 2013, introduced an ordinance that expanded the city code’s definition of prohibited livestock to include pigs of all sizes, kinds, and both genders.
The proposed code amendment was a Consent Calendar item and approved without discussion by council members.
That is standard for Consent Calendar items.
According to then-Councilwoman (now mayor) Ellery Deaton, the city attorney wanted to clarify the ordinance.
Deaton represents District One, which includes Bubba’s home.
The city had apparently been trying to get rid of Bubba for about three years. His owners disputed the city’s previous definition of a prohibited “hog,” arguing that it did not apply to Bubba.
Deaton argued the code was being enforced equally.
Supporters of Bubba’s owner, who has Stage 4 cancer, protested the expanded definition of prohibited animals, arguing that the City Council was over-reaching.
The protests included a rally (that was not officially called a rally to avoid the need for a permit), a Facebook page that currently boasts 440 “friends” and the song “Don’t Send Bubba to Hog Heaven” which was performed before the City Council in November.
Opponents of the pig argued that the animal did not belong in a residential neighborhood and would be better off in a larger space somewhere else.
The issue returned to the City Council on Tuesday, Nov. 12, when Deaton proposed a compromise that would allow the pig to stay in Seal Beach—by using the section of the city code that allows residents to keep non-domesticated animals with a permit.
However, according to Assistant City Attorney Steven Flower, pigs like Bubba could not be fit into that of the city code because a pig is a domesticated animal.
So the Seal Beach City Council had to change the Municipal Code to allow the Grimsley family to keep their pet. The revised ordinance added pigs to the list of allowed animals.
The City Council voted unanimously on Jan. 13, 2014, to approve an ordinance adding pigs to the list of non-domesticated animals that the city will allow residents to keep, provided they receive a permit.
This ordinance was originally a Consent Calendar item, just like the one that started the controversy, but District Four Councilman Gary Miller had the item pulled off the Consent Calendar.
He said he would vote for the ordinance, but he asked that no permits for non-domesticated animals be issued in his district.
Deaton directed staff Monday, to tell Bubba’s owners that they could apply for the permit to keep him.
Deaton did not mention the pig or its owners by name.
Now Bubba has his permit. According to Grimsley, the permit number ends with six digits: 000001.
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