Big questions over little pig as pot-bellied Mufasa makes debut

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Mufasa the pot-bellied pig visited the Perry City Hall Friday after the Perry City Council entered into a livestock agreement Monday with Stephanie Mapes of 1708 Seventh St. that will permit Mapes to keep the miniature porker in her home.

Mapes could not leave work to attend the Monday night council meeting, so her sister, Amy Jo Mapes, stood in for her and answered the council’s questions about the plans for the pet pig.

“The struggle that we have to consider tonight,” said Perry Mayor Jay Pattee, “is right now a pig, even though this particular kind of pig can apparently be a pet, is considered to be livestock, so we have to look at it as livestock or else call it something else besides livestock. Now we have a big ordinance that talks all about livestock within the city limits. We have permission for chickens right now, but this is our first request for a pot-bellied pig.”

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The council was particularly concerned about the pig’s effect on the neighborhood. Mapes told the council that Mufasa will be kept “indoors and there will be a fenced-in backyard.”

Council member Barb Wolling asked whether Mufasa’s neighbors had been told about his coming.

“Her corner neighbor is actually of friend of hers,” Mapes said, “and he knows about it, and he’s fine with it. I don’t know about her other neighbor.”

Mapes said her sister has been looking to get a pet for several years, but the children in the house are allergic to cats and dogs, and Mufasa’s porcine petiteness offered an option.

“She’s had it set for a couple of years, looking at a mini-pig, but never got the option,” Mapes said. “She’s done so much research on it it’s unbelievable.”

Council member Dr. Randy McCaulley said there was “some question about how large this animal is going to get. I defer to my colleagues here who know a lot more about animals than I do, but is their some idea of what size this pig will become?”

“The dad was 25 pounds, and the mom was 40,” Mapes said, “so anywhere in that range.”

Council member Chuck Schott, who described himself as “a real advocate of pets and advocate of animals,” expressed concern about the effect of a pig on the people.

“My chickens are confined in a three-by-seven-foot area,” Schott said. “They not out running the backyard. They’re not out rooting or digging in the backyard. They’re not out contacting neighbors’ fences or anything like that. I have a real question with the effect on the neighborhood of a pig running loose in a normal backyard, solid fence or not. What’s that going to look like, and how that going to react with the neighbors?”

Mapes assured Schott and the rest of the city leaders that Mufasa, whose name means ‘king” or “spoiled rotten” in Swahili, would be kept on a leash or lead when in the backyard and would not be running at large in the backyard.

City Administrator Sven Peterson reminded the council that the wording of animal agreements permits the council to “go back and review the agreement at any time, but also it comes under review the first or after three complaints from neighbors, so there are checks and balances not only with city council but neighbors as well.”

Peterson also said further stipulations could be added to the Mapes animal agreement.

“I’m looking at the positives,” said Council member Dean Berkland. “A pig don’t bark all night. So I would think this owner would be responsible enough to take care of the little pig.”

“I do have some neighbors that have at least four dogs,”said Council member John Andorf, “and I would probably trade the four dogs for one pot-bellied pig.”

If Mufasa had been present for the inquisition, he would likely have charmed the council as he did the city administration when he trotted into city hall Friday at the end of a little blue, retractable leash.

There were no elected office holders on hand to kiss the pig, as is their wont, but Perry City Clerk Paula Rychnovsky, Perry City Finance Officer Susie Moorhead and Perry Chamber of Commerce Executive Secretary Julie Scheib lavished much baby talk on the plump piglet.

Mufasa arrived with a train of subjects, including Stephanie Mapes, her sister, Shannon Mapes, and her daughters, 2-year-old Abacyn Martinez and 11-month-old Serenity Mapes. After the forms were filled out and an inspection performed by the City Building Official, Mufasa became a legal resident of Perry.

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