Family Fights to Keep Pet Pig for Autistic Son

Aug 7th 2009

What do you do if your eight-year-old autistic son finds dogs too hyper and cats too dull? If you're Lisa Pia of Fayetteville, North Carolina, you get your little boy a pet piglet. A black potbellied pig, to be exact.

Little did Pia know she was violating a Fayetteville ordinance banning the keeping of swine. But Pia insists it's just plain hogwash and is fighting to get the law changed on behalf of her son, Anthony.

"Soon as he saw her, it was love at first sight," Pia told WRAL News, recalling Anthony's first meeting with the female pig they named Loopey. Anthony doted on Loopey, wrapping her in a towel like a baby. As the piglet grew, they comforted each other through thunderstorms and played in the family's enormous backyard. Each night, the 80-pound hog slept in Anthony's room. Each day, Anthony raced home from school to be with his pet pig.

For a year, boy and pig were happy. "We were just excited for him that finally, he's coming out and he's not in his shell anymore, and he's doing things, and playing and interacting," Pia said.

Then came an unexpected letter from city inspectors, informing the Pias of the Fayettevile ordinance that makes it "unlawful to keep hogs within the corporate limits." A city inspector had spied Loopey in the Pias' backyard while in the neighborhood on an unrelated matter.