What Makes a Pet: My Letter to a PG County Councilman

As you may already know, I have taken up the new pasttime of political activism on behalf of pet potbellied pigs and their owners, specifically regarding one pig and her approaching death sentence.  Yesterday I emailed a local councilman with my views on this matter.  Since it could also be looked upon as a manifesto of sorts, I reprint it here omitting the venerable councilman’s name and my own:

Dear Mr. Councilman,

I appreciate the work that you do as a council member on behalf of Prince George’s County and residents such as myself. I hope this email finds you well.  Although the matter with which I approach you may seem low on your list of priorities, it is not insignificant for the family it affects.  Pat Brown and her family have raised a potbellied pig as a pet since its infancy.  It is now 20 years old and in relatively good health, but Prince George’s County is needlessly ordering its execution by late December of 2009.  You can read more about Pat Brown’s story here and can see her growing support here.  Gwendolyn, Ms. Brown’s pig, has also been featured on NBC4 Washington evening news.  As an advocate of pet owners’ rights, this is disturbing to me on many levels.  As Americans, we expect to have the freedom to pursue happiness in whatever unique package it may come as long as it does not excessively infringe on others’ rights.  Some people find happiness in adopting dogs and others, cats.  Pat Brown found (finds) happiness with her potbellied pig, a pig that has lived a harmless and innocent life up until now on the property of her owner with the support of her neighbors.

When I was a child, I was once bitten by my friend’s tiny dog.  I had to race out of his chain-link fence in order to escape it.  All over the country, there are people routinely bitten (and sometimes mauled) by dogs.  Often these bites are overlooked in the interest of the pet owner and in other severe cases, the government requests that the animal be put down out of safety concerns for other citizens.  In spite of these risks, there is no outright ban on dog ownership.  Meanwhile, Gwendolyn, Ms. Brown’s pig, who has led a quiet and tranquil life for 20 years, harming no one, is legislatively targeted because she has hooves instead of paws.  People often defend such legislation pointing to a history filled with anecdotes of pigs breaking out of their confines and heading out into the wider human world to create mischief, but the swine in these stories were not raised as pets. What would happen if you took a bunch of dogs, predatory animals, put them in a pen, didn’t train them, and only provided for their food now and again, such as is done with pigs raised for their meat?  My guess is they would be even more wild and even more dangerous than the untamed farm pigs, notably prey animals, in those anecdotes.

What makes a pet out of an otherwise wild animal?  I do not believe it is whether that animal has pointy nose instead of a round snout, a furry tail instead of narrow, bristly tail, or paws instead of hooves.  Nor is it because one animal has customarily been seen by society as a pet and the other not.  A wild animal becomes a pet when, through years of focused interaction with human beings, it has the capacity to learn and behave according to the rules set by its human family.  Gwendolyn learned those rules and applied them well in life.  She does not deserve to die due to a needless mandate by the PG County zoning commission  based on a vague, arbitrary, and prejudiced piece of legislation.

There are two reasons I can see for banning a particular type of animal: for the safety of the public and the safety of the animal.  Neither of these conditions apply to the case of Gwendolyn the potbellied pig.  Although the holidays are approaching fast and you may be busy in preparation, this situation cannot wait.  PG County has determined that Gwendolyn must die around Christmastime and if the council does not act fast to reverse this decision, one family’s holiday will be awfully sad.

Sincerely,

Farmhand

So there it is.  Pigs can be pets.  I’ll be sure to update you with any news relating to Gwendolyn.  I encourage you to do all you can to support this effort, whether it is through writing emails to public officials or showing solidarity by joining Gwendolyn’s Facebook page.