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The Gil family is hoping to keep the pot-bellied pig they got to help their nine-year-old Julian with his symptoms – but the city says their pet is illegal
Maggie the pig and Julian, nine, are inseparable. Photograph: Facebook
It’s a pig’s life.
Maggie the pot-bellied pig is her young owner’s best friend, but could be thrown out on her ear if city authorities in Arizona have their way.
Julian Gil, nine, is inseparable from the animal his parents bought three years ago to help him with the symptoms of Asperger syndrome.
Living in the family home in Chandler, on the outskirts of Phoenix, Maggie has her own bed, takes showers and will apparently do almost anything for a scoop of Cheerios breakfast cereal.
She is also what the family describes as a lifesaver for Julian – although, the city maintains, an illegal one.
The Gils say she’s a family pet. The city says she’s livestock, which by law cannot be kept in the home. In November her fate will hog the spotlight during city council deliberations as Chandler’s leaders ask themselves: should she stay, or should she go?
“If she was a giraffe or an elephant I might understand. People can keep parrots, snakes, 10 large dogs, even a miniature horse at home if they want. But we can’t keep one small pig? I will beg them on my knees if I have to,” Arlene Gil, Julian’s mother, said on Thursday.
The family has had a dog since before Julian was born, but he has never paid it the least attention. Cats and other pets don’t interest him.
But he dotes on the pot-bellied pig, whose stolid presence and quiet attention calm Julian down when he is prone to “meltdowns” and lift his spirits when he succumbs to regular bouts of depression, his mother said.
Maggie the pig and Julian. Photograph: Facebook
“She is a lifesaver for Julian. I don’t even want to think about how devastated he will be if we are told she has to leave,” Gil said.
Arlene and her husband, David Gil, acquired Maggie three years ago after Julian became smitten with the pigs featured in the video game Minecraft, especially one squealer called Margaret.
There was no trouble, according to the family, until August when the Gils were told by authorities that a neighbor had complained to the city that Maggie was a nuisance and was causing an “insect problem” in the form of a tick infestation.
The family was told that having a 70-pound Vietnamese pig at home violated two city ordinances relating to a ban on keeping pigs or other livestock in residential housing, and that Maggie must vacate the premises.
The Gils have sent letters to the city from a vet who has inspected their home and a doctor who treats their son, arguing that Maggie should be considered both a legal pet and an emotional support animal for Julian, not a farm animal.
“Julian needs constant calm, not a dog that jumps or barks or needs a ball thrown for it. Maggie soothes him. He talks to her, strokes her and whispers his feelings into her ear. If he’s flailing with anxiety she has a special grunt that she uses just for him and it stops him,” said Arlene Gil.
Gil said Maggie has never had a tick problem and stays in the house or yard, although she visits Julian’s school once or twice a year, where she is something of a celebrity.
She said she realised Julian had serious emotional problems by the time he was two or three years old, that he had found it difficult to relate to others and, later on, developed obsessive and depressive tendencies.
Eventually he was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, a disorder at the mild end of the autism spectrum. He attends school, normally without Maggie, but has some extra provisions made for him in the classroom.
Julian was in school on Thursday afternoon and unavailable to talk, but has a busy Facebook page, titled Maggie and her boy, where he posts videos answering the public’s questions about his relationship with his pig.
“She smiles all the time. Maggie helps me in a lot of ways. When I’m sad she is always there to help me get cheered up,” he said in a recent post, with Maggie lying next to him in the house, occasionally twitching her black and pink snout.
The family has retained a lawyer, who has made submissions to the council and promised to sue in federal court if Chandler does not let Julian keep Maggie at home, according to the Arizona Republic. The family expects a decision by the end of November.
City spokesman Matt Burdick said: “We have met with the homeowner, we have met with the attorney, who turned in some additional documents, and we are reviewing this to try to come to a resolution. At this time the pot-bellied pig is still in residence.”
SOURCE: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/29/arizona-family-pet-pig-maggie
The Gil family is hoping to keep the pot-bellied pig they got to help their nine-year-old Julian with his symptoms – but the city says their pet is illegal
Maggie the pig and Julian, nine, are inseparable. Photograph: Facebook
It’s a pig’s life.
Maggie the pot-bellied pig is her young owner’s best friend, but could be thrown out on her ear if city authorities in Arizona have their way.
Julian Gil, nine, is inseparable from the animal his parents bought three years ago to help him with the symptoms of Asperger syndrome.
Living in the family home in Chandler, on the outskirts of Phoenix, Maggie has her own bed, takes showers and will apparently do almost anything for a scoop of Cheerios breakfast cereal.
She is also what the family describes as a lifesaver for Julian – although, the city maintains, an illegal one.
The Gils say she’s a family pet. The city says she’s livestock, which by law cannot be kept in the home. In November her fate will hog the spotlight during city council deliberations as Chandler’s leaders ask themselves: should she stay, or should she go?
“If she was a giraffe or an elephant I might understand. People can keep parrots, snakes, 10 large dogs, even a miniature horse at home if they want. But we can’t keep one small pig? I will beg them on my knees if I have to,” Arlene Gil, Julian’s mother, said on Thursday.
The family has had a dog since before Julian was born, but he has never paid it the least attention. Cats and other pets don’t interest him.
But he dotes on the pot-bellied pig, whose stolid presence and quiet attention calm Julian down when he is prone to “meltdowns” and lift his spirits when he succumbs to regular bouts of depression, his mother said.
Maggie the pig and Julian. Photograph: Facebook
“She is a lifesaver for Julian. I don’t even want to think about how devastated he will be if we are told she has to leave,” Gil said.
Arlene and her husband, David Gil, acquired Maggie three years ago after Julian became smitten with the pigs featured in the video game Minecraft, especially one squealer called Margaret.
There was no trouble, according to the family, until August when the Gils were told by authorities that a neighbor had complained to the city that Maggie was a nuisance and was causing an “insect problem” in the form of a tick infestation.
The family was told that having a 70-pound Vietnamese pig at home violated two city ordinances relating to a ban on keeping pigs or other livestock in residential housing, and that Maggie must vacate the premises.
The Gils have sent letters to the city from a vet who has inspected their home and a doctor who treats their son, arguing that Maggie should be considered both a legal pet and an emotional support animal for Julian, not a farm animal.
“Julian needs constant calm, not a dog that jumps or barks or needs a ball thrown for it. Maggie soothes him. He talks to her, strokes her and whispers his feelings into her ear. If he’s flailing with anxiety she has a special grunt that she uses just for him and it stops him,” said Arlene Gil.
Gil said Maggie has never had a tick problem and stays in the house or yard, although she visits Julian’s school once or twice a year, where she is something of a celebrity.
She said she realised Julian had serious emotional problems by the time he was two or three years old, that he had found it difficult to relate to others and, later on, developed obsessive and depressive tendencies.
Eventually he was diagnosed with Asperger syndrome, a disorder at the mild end of the autism spectrum. He attends school, normally without Maggie, but has some extra provisions made for him in the classroom.
Julian was in school on Thursday afternoon and unavailable to talk, but has a busy Facebook page, titled Maggie and her boy, where he posts videos answering the public’s questions about his relationship with his pig.
“She smiles all the time. Maggie helps me in a lot of ways. When I’m sad she is always there to help me get cheered up,” he said in a recent post, with Maggie lying next to him in the house, occasionally twitching her black and pink snout.
The family has retained a lawyer, who has made submissions to the council and promised to sue in federal court if Chandler does not let Julian keep Maggie at home, according to the Arizona Republic. The family expects a decision by the end of November.
City spokesman Matt Burdick said: “We have met with the homeowner, we have met with the attorney, who turned in some additional documents, and we are reviewing this to try to come to a resolution. At this time the pot-bellied pig is still in residence.”
SOURCE: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/oct/29/arizona-family-pet-pig-maggie
