City in Pierce County changes law about pigs for 1st time since 1938. Here’s what it says
Pig owners in Sumner could be fined roughly $100 if they didn’t follow the city code.
That was the law about 85 years ago.
“Our pig code was from 1938 — that was the last time we had done anything with that code,” city spokesperson Carmen Palmer said.
The Sumner City Council unanimously voted during an April 3 council meeting to revise Chapter 6.12 of its municipal code. The revision explicitly says the city permits residents to have and maintain farm animals including livestock, poultry and pigs.
The old code singled out pigs with specific restrictions. Other livestock had their own code. On April 3 the city decided to put all those animals together in one code.
Palmer said a retired animal control officer named Debra Perry often took notes of outdated codes that would affect her interactions with the public. The city’s pig code was one of the things on Perry’s list.
Perry noticed the city had a separate pig code from the code for other livestock, Palmer said. Perry also noticed the code was outdated and referred to giant farming pigs — the code didn’t consider different types of domesticated pigs that surfaced over time.
The city doesn’t know how many pigs are in Sumner as they didn’t have a system to monitor or register them prior to the code update, Palmer said.
“We were talking about how we have to update our licensing forms that still say ‘dog or cat,’” Palmer said.
The new code adds the pigs with the other livestock. It allows for miniature pigs such as Kune Kune, Juliana and Potbelly breeds. It also states that pigs must stay on the caretaker’s property and mustn’t roam unattended. Giant farming pigs are still allowed.
The previous code didn’t specify a list of pig breeds or include miniature pigs. It prohibited residents from owning a pig in the city within 300 feet of a house or 200 feet of a street.
Assistant City Attorney Maili Barber said during the April 3 council meeting that Perry worked on the code revisions for “many years.”
“One thing that maybe gets buried is that we do have … a municipal code and those are still the laws we operate off,” Palmer said. “It is important for us to keep looking at that … and to update those based on how people are living today.”
This story was originally published April 11, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
