PEMBROKE PINES, FLA. (WSVN) - A couple said their Pembroke Pines’s neighbor claims their pet piglets smell, and now officials say they have to get rid of them.
Mike Owens and Theresa Shaia said their pet piglets are part of the family. “Frankenstein, he’s really smart. He has his own personality,” Owens said. “Beetlejuice is awesome. He’s super, super friendly. You rub his belly, he just falls over.”
Shaia admitted that Frankenstein and Beetlejuice are like the children they didn’t have. “Me and Mike, we can’t have kids,” she said, “so this is the closest we’ll ever have to children. It kind of fulfills something in our family. It completes our family, these two piglets.”
The City of Pembroke Pines have told the couple the piglets have to go after a neighbor complained that the pigs smell. However, 7News crews who interviewed the couple said they smelled nothing.
“The last thing I would ever want to do is create any kind of issues,” Owens said.
Officials said their pets are farm animals. “It is a residential area and not agricultural,” said Larry Diaco with the City of Pembroke Pines. “Because it is a residential, farm animals are forbidden from being kept on the property.”
Officials gave Owens until April 18 to remove Frankenstein and Beetlejuice from the residence and said that if he does not, Owens will be fined up to $250 per day.
Shaia said raising crops and having a pet are two different things. “Farm is raising crops or livestock for livelihood,” she said. “These pigs are neutered pets that are never meant to be eaten. They’re bred to be pets.”
The pigs, the couple said, are their domestic pets, and they’re hoping the city will see it their way in a hearing that’s scheduled for June 22.
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