Bubba gets to stay in Seal Beach.
District One Councilwoman Ellery Deaton, who represents Old Town including the Dolphin Avenue neighborhood which a pig named Bubba calls home, proposed a compromise would allow the pig to stay in Seal Beach. She proposed the compromise at the Tuesday night, Nov. 12, council meeting.
Deaton asked the pig’s owner, Madonna Grimsley, if she would apply for a permit if Deaton could find a way for the city to issue a permit.
Grimsley said yes.
Deaton then asked Nat Ferguson, who recently argued in a Sun guest column that the pig would be better off somewhere else, if he would agree to a permit process that would allow Bubba to remain in his home subject to conditions such as cleanliness.
Ferguson said yes.
Deaton asked Assistant City Attorney Steven Flower if Bubba could fit into the section of the city code that allows permits for non-domesticated animals such as wild boars.
Flower said no because a pig is a domesticated animal.
Deaton asked Flower, who she addressed as city attorney, if Bubba could be grandfather into the city code that prohibits livestock.
Flower said he could not be grandfather into the code. He said that would be directing staff not to enforce the city code.
Deaton asked directed staff to expand the non-domesticated animal permit law to include Bubba.
None of the other council members objected.
Flower said that what Deaton proposed would require another amendment to the city code. That amendment would come back to the council in December. He assured Deaton that there would be no code enforcement action against Grimsely’s pet pig. So Bubba is safe for now, at least.
Deaton then moved to approve on second and final reading a proposed ordinance that would ban pigs of all sizes, kinds and both genders from Seal Beach.
Resident Sharman Snow called out from the audience that Deaton was “pulling a fast one.”
Deaton said she didn’t appreciate the comment.
The council voted unanimously to approve the ordinance.
The new ordinance amends an already-existing city code that prohibits livestock including “hogs,” a word that was too narrowly defined to serve code enforcement efforts, according to a recent report by City Attorney Quinn Barrow.
Prior to Deaton’s proposed compromise, it appeared that passage of the ordinance would have in effect cast Bubba out of the city.
Deaton said she only thought of the non-domesticated animal ordinance Tuesday morning.
“I want to bring residents together,” Deaton said.
The Council Chambers were nearly packed with residents and members of the news media. Before the public comment segment of the meeting, Mayor Gary Miller warned that disruptive behavior (such as applause) was illegal. That didn’t stop several outbursts of applause in response to public comments in favor of allowing the Dolphin Avenue pig to stay.
Miller also said he would like to limit speakers to three minutes each.
Ferguson told the council he was sorry it took three years for Bubba to get the attention he deserved. Ferguson recently argued in print that Bubba would be better off if he lived somewhere else. When members of the audience tried to shout him down, Miller insisted that he be allowed to speak.
Ferguson said that the last time he checked, contacting the authorities about an animal screaming was the right thing to do.
Ferguson said some neighbors haven’t spoken out about the noise and smell from the pig’s home because they fear retaliation.
Pam Perry of Old Town said she lived next door to Bubba and said there was no noise or smell.
Karen Hadley sang, “Don’t Send Bubba to Hog Heaven,” accompanied by several people in the audience.
“See Ellery, we didn’t tar and feather you,” she said.
Grimsley said she didn’t like dissention. She said at one point that Long Beach Animal Care Services had been to her home perhaps as much as once a week because of complaints about Bubba. She had been trying to work with city staff to resolve the issue when she learned the council had introduced the amendment to the code that would prohibit pigs of all sizes and kinds in Seal Beach. That occurred at the Nov. 4 council meeting.
When Deaton warned Grimsley that she had 30 seconds left, Miller said she would be allowed to finish.
Other residents said there were more important issues facing Seal Beach, such as dogs off their leashes, people not picking up dog waste and coyotes.
The issue came before the council recently because of complaints centered on Bubba, a large, Vietnamese pot-bellied pig.
Some neighbors apparently regard him as a nuisance. Still others argue it is cruel to keep a large animal in comparatively small quarters. Deaton recently told the Sun that there had been three complaints to the city about him. Deaton said the process had gone on for three years. Grimsley said it had been going on for four years.
His owners regard him as a pet. His owners’ supporters say the City Council was over-reaching with the ban on all pigs.
Animal control officers regarded Bubba as livestock and his presence as a violation of the city code.
However, Grimsley argued that he didn’t meet the definition of a hog, the type of pig specified in the original language of the livestock ordinance.
Deaton said the city attorney simply wanted the language in the code clarified and the ordinance was not intended to target one family.
A Save Bubba the Seal Beach Pig page on Facebook had 442 members as of Tuesday morning, Nov. 12.
