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Tacoma committee advances broad animal-control changes after neighbors urge clearer rules on pigs
Summary
Neighbors told the Government Performance & Finance Committee on Jan. 21 that a pig kept next door caused noise, flies and safety concerns, prompting staff to propose a package of Title 17 changes — including mandatory spay/neuter for repeatedly impounded animals, higher fees for unaltered pets and a new pig license — to address animal overpopulation.
Neighbors shared accounts of disrupted sleep, increased flies and a pig pen built along a shared boundary during the Government Performance & Finance Committee meeting on Jan. 21, 2025, prompting the committee to consider updates to the city’s animal-control code.
Maureen Wells, who said she lives in District 1, described a pig kept in a front-yard pen that “runs the length of our shared property line” and said it grunted loudly starting as early as 4:30 a.m. She told the committee the pen “was built using our shared fence as one of its sides” and that she and other neighbors experienced flies and odors. Her husband, Ed Wells, said he was “shocked to learn that this law could be interpreted to mean that pigs are legal while hogs are not,” and asked that the ordinance be rewritten so “all members of the swine family…need to be identified in the law to avoid the current situation in the future.”
Those public comments tied directly to a staff-led briefing later in the meeting on proposed updates to Title 17…
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