Last month, the New York City health department received an anonymous complaint that a farm animal was being kept as a pet in a Staten Island home.
City inspectors’ subsequent visit to the home created an uproar in the Tottenville neighborhood, where Michael and Loriann Gannone lived with the animal, a pygmy pig named Lucy whom they adopted from family friends in 2010.
The department told the Gannones that Lucy would have to leave, since farm animals are illegal in New York City. Failure to comply would mean fines as high as $18,000, the family told The Staten Island Advance, which first reported the story.
Neighbors and family friends created a social media hashtag, wrote petitions and recruited local lawmakers to help keep the pig with her family. Lucy is 14, on the older side for a pig, and her health is starting to flag, Mr. Gannone said.
In a video on Instagram last week, Mr. Gannone appealed directly to Mayor Eric Adams for help while Ms. Gannone, sitting with Lucy on a couch, said she would “sacrifice my everyday life” to take care of her pig, “like everybody does for their children.”
“If you want to take my pig,” Ms. Gannone said tearfully, “take me too.”
On Monday, the city answered their pleas. Mr. Adams announced on social media that Lucy could stay with her family, and that the city would not take punitive action.
But the mayor clarified that the situation was temporary, and “pig ownership is still against the law in New York City.”
Mr. Adams said that the city had chosen not to fine Lucy’s family because she wasn’t “causing any disruptions to the community,” and added that the Gannones would have to bring her upstate, where they have a home undergoing renovations, once she was in better condition.
“We’re ecstatic,” Mr. Gannone said Tuesday. He thanked Mr. Adams and everyone in the community who had supported his family.
Ms. Gannone said she had been unaware that having a pig was illegal in the city, adding that she had “tried to do things by the book” and had given the health department doctors’ notes that said Lucy was vaccinated.
The Gannones, who have two adult children and three grandchildren, speculated that the 311 call started out as a “prank” rather than reflecting genuine concerns from a neighbor.
“I don’t think it was anyone in the area,” Mr. Gannone said. “Everybody’s ringing the bell, congratulating us.”
In a statement to The Advance, the health department said it has prohibited pigs as pets for at least 25 years, citing their potential aggression toward people and the lack of an approved rabies vaccine. And, the agency added, pig manure is particularly smelly.
An online petition in support of Lucy’s family garnered over 25,000 signatures. The petition, which called Lucy a “cherished family pig,” railed against the “incomprehensible” threat from city officials to “uproot” her.
Last week, the Gannones held a news conference at their Tottenville home with lawmakers including Frank Morano, a Republican member of the City Council, and Representative Nicole Malliotakis, a Republican from Staten Island.
“To think that at a time when Lucy is genuinely sick and spending most of her days lying on a couch — in a home, by the way, that smells better and is cleaner than any house I’ve ever lived in,” Mr. Morano said, “it defies logic” that the Gannones would face fines and separation from Lucy.
“She’s my daughter,” Mr. Gannone said at the conference’s end.
Curtis Sliwa, the Republican nominee for New York City mayor, was also in attendance, sitting on the Gannones’ front steps with Lucy and feeding her a carrot. Behind him hung a sign the Gannones had affixed to their front door, which read, “Oink oink here, oink oink there.”
Lucy’s Instagram account, which features photos of the pig wearing pink bunny ears, posted a jubilant message to its 1,000 followers on Monday. “This old piggie get to stay HOME where she belongs & its because of YOU ALL,” the caption read.
Mr. Adams is not the first New York City mayor in recent years to grant clemency to a delinquent pet pig. In 2017, Mayor Bill de Blasio allowed another Staten Island swine, Wilbur, to stay with his family temporarily until his owners could find “a safe and suitable home” for him.
Kirsten Noyes contributed research.
Taylor Robinson is a Times reporter covering the New York City metro area.
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