Man Battling Town Over Whether Pot-Bellied Pig Is Livestock Or Emotional Support Pet
"I think she can kind of hone in on you when you’re feeling bad because she’ll want to come in and snuggle with you,” Wyverne Flatt said about his pet pig, Ellie.
CANAJOHARIE, N.Y. (AP) — Ellie the potbellied pig snuggles up to Wyverne Flatt when he watches TV and sometimes rolls over to let him pet her belly. The 110-pound pig is “family,” Flatt says, an emotional support animal who helped him through a divorce and the death of his mother.
Officials in his upstate village of Canajoharie see it very differently. To them, the pig is a farm animal Flatt is harboring in the village illegally.
The case could soon be headed to a criminal trial. But it has already caught the attention of pig partisans who believe the animals should be respected more as companions instead of just a food source. ...