The Seal Beach City Council on Monday, Dec. 9, unanimously approved the introduction of a Municipal Code amendment that would allow residents to keep a pig. City Attorney Quinn Barrow said if passed the amendment would allow anyone who owns a pig in Seal Beach could apply for a non-domesticated animal permit.
The amendment will have to pass on a second and final reading to become law. The issue will return to the council in early 2014.
The amendment was approved with little fanfare. No members of the public spoke for or against the amendment. If there were any pro-or anti-pig activists present, they gave no sign. There was no mention of the individual pig that was originally at the center of the issue.
The addition of pigs to the non-domesticated animal permit was proposed in mid-November by District One Councilwoman Ellery Deaton, following a protracted three-year effort to remove a pig named Bubba from an Old Town neighborhood. According to Deaton, the city had received multiple complaints about the pig. Some opponents of the pig’s presence objected because they believed the animal did not belong in the neighborhood.
According to City Attorney Quinn Barrow, keeping a hog violated the Municipal Code. However, there was a dispute over whether the word “hog” applied to Bubba. Staff recently asked the council to update the code with an amendment that removed the word “hog” and instead prohibited pigs of all sizes and kinds. That amendment was introduced on the Consent Calendar and passed without public discussion.
The reaction included the creation of a Facebook page to save Bubba the Seal Beach Pig, a protest at Eisenhower Park and pro-Bubba protestors serenading the Nov. 13 City Council with a rendition of “Don’t Send Bubba to Hog Heaven.”
After the council heard arguments for and against allowing Bubba to stay, 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 had 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.
However, allowing Bubba to stay under a non-domesticated animal permit required the council to amend the Municipal Code.
Deaton directed staff to expand the non-domesticated animal permit law to include Bubba.
None of the other council members objected.
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 and animal activist Sharman Snow called out from the audience that Deaton was “pulling a fast one.”
Deaton said she didn’t appreciate the comment.
The council then voted unanimously to approve the no-pigs-allowed ordinance.
Before Deaton’s proposed compromise, it appeared that passage of the ordinance would have in effect cast Bubba out of the city.
Deaton told the Sun she only thought of the non-domesticated animal ordinance Tuesday morning.
“I want to bring residents together,” Deaton said at the time.
The “Save Bubba” Facebook page had 442 members as of Tuesday morning, Nov. 12.
As of Monday, Dec. 9, the page had 445 members.
Some Bubba supporters are planning a “100 pig” march in Bubba’s favor on Saturday, Dec. 14, that will reportedly end with Bubba receiving an “official” pardon from Beachwood BBQ.
