Livestock coming out of closet

Small livestock all over Carson City are coming out of the closet today after officials put the final stamp of approval this week on an updated animal ordinance.

"Oh, I'm so happy," said Anne Macquarie, who keeps one Araucana chicken on a residential lot in northwest Carson City. "She's really just a pet now because she doesn't lay eggs anymore, and I was worried, because there was no doubt in my mind that Snowball was against the law."

On Thursday, the Carson City Board of Supervisors passed on a second reading of amendments to city code that allow residents to keep up to two pot-bellied pigs and four female chickens or ducks.

After the revised ordinance passed unanimously - with Mayor Bob Crowell abstaining - Supervisor Shelly Aldean called out, "Welcome home, Arnold!"

Crowell came under fire during his mayoral campaign last year after Animal Services received a complaint that he was harboring an illegal pig.

The political hopeful was compelled to find a new home for his aging pot-bellied pig, Arnold, who now resides with an undisclosed animal rescue group.

Animal Services Director Pat Wiggins had said the previous ordinance was not aggressively enforced unless someone called in with a specific complaint.

Macquarie said that despite her illicit hen, she is not a known scofflaw.

"I might go over the speed limit occasionally, but that's the only thing illegal I do," she said.

She believes the change is a step in the right direction toward getting people to eat more organically and that it will also help children to gain a better understanding of their agricultural heritage.

"So many of our kids have no idea where food comes from, and throughout the world, people use eggs as a cheap, high-quality protein," she said.

Another resident, lawyer Joan Wright, confessed her crime to the board of supervisors Thursday after addressing them on a planning issue.

As she was leaving the podium, she turned and thanked them for making her pot-bellied pig legal.

Wright, who also lives on the west side of Carson, said after the meeting that "Little Richard" is a member of the family. They got him when he was 6 weeks old and he is now 17.

"I had thought throughout all this that it would be nice if he could live long enough to be legal. It would have broken my husband's heart to lose him," Wright said.

The ordinance also updates a number of other key issues such as the leash law; vaccinations for dogs and cats; tags, permits and fees; restraining animals; animal sanitation; dogs running at large; female dogs or cats running at large while in heat; conditions for release of impounded cats and dogs; changes for ferret permits; keeping animals possessing vicious or dangerous tendencies; setting rabies control authority; and poisoning animals, butchering, harming or inhumane killing of animals.

A copy of the revised ordinance is available at the city's Web site: www.carson-city.nv.us under Board of Supervisors and Agenda with Supporting Materials, Item 12.