Community Corner

Pigs as Pets? Neighbor Complains About 'Excessive' Pigs at Murrieta Home

Though Murrieta municipal code dating back to 1998 allows residents in all zones to keep up to four pot-bellied pigs, a Murrieta man alleges his neighbor has continually exceeded that number.

UPDATED at 4:30 p.m. May 16:

S & L Property Management said the owner of the Redcliffe Road home was notified and initially approved of the pigs. Amid concerns about how many pigs were being kept at the house, Diana Martinez of S & L told Patch the Engens have been given until July 3 to vacate the property.

"They are good people in a bad situation," Martinez said. "The owner is just trying to keep the peace."

The notice to vacate was served on May 2, according to Martinez.

ORIGINAL POST:

Murrieta Code Enforcement officers are monitoring a home in which a neighbor alleges too many pot-bellied pigs are being kept as pets.

Though Murrieta municipal code dating back to 1998 allows residents in all zones to keep up to four pot-bellied pigs, Joey Fondren alleges his neighbor on Redcliffe Road has continually exceeded that number. He is also unhappy with the effects of having pigs next door.

“I can not sit in my backyard because the urine and feces smell is nauseating,” Fondren wrote, in an email to city Code Enforcement. “There are hundreds of flies generated from feces in the backyard, as well as what is stored in maggot filled garbage cans for weeks. He is bringing the property values down for the people who worked hard to purchase nice homes in a RESIDENTIAL area free of LIVESTOCK.”

Fondren complained about an incident when the pigs got out of his neighbor’s yard and were wandering the quiet residential neighborhood off Date Street for hours. He provided Patch an email chain going back nearly a year in which he requests action from the city.

Code Enforcement and Animal Control officers have been to the home on several occasions.

“The ordinance allows you to keep, have, own four pot belly pigs as long as they don’t exceed four and 85 pounds each,” said Murrieta police Lt. Rob Firmes. “In this particular case, some of the females were pregnant. But they are allowed to exceed the four for up to four months until the piglets are weaned and then they have to find new homes for them. So animal control is monitoring it to make sure they don’t exceed that.”

Firmes told Patch the male pig in question has been neutered so the females will not be having any more.

Pot-bellied pig owners Vinnie Engen and his daughter, Jenna Engen have been renting the Redcliffe Road house for the past year, and said they feel “harassed.”

The Engens explained they currently have one male adult pig and three female adult pigs, plus one 3-week-old male piglet—the rest have been adopted out.

Vinnie told Patch they recently had the adult male neutered at the request of Code Enforcement, which he alleged was an overstepping of the department’s responsibilities.

Vinnie, a retired Orange County sheriff’s deputy, also said he has taken measures to appease his neighbors’ complaints—which are not limited to Fondren.

Despite a diagnosis of Stage 4 melanoma, Vinnie said he rises early every day to ensure any waste is cleared from his backyard. They’ve also installed barriers so the pigs can not go near their neighbors’ fences, as well as purchased a deodorizer to take care of the smell. The pigs cool off in small pools in the backyard.

“I don’t think there is any compromise for them,” Vinnie said. “They aren’t going to stop.”

As a result, daughter Jenna, 25, said they are considering moving.

“We have been very cooperative,” Jenna said. “We’ve given (the neighbors) our contact information, but they don’t communicate. They just call the police.”

Like her father, Jenna also suffers from a medical condition: she was diagnosed with Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. The diagnosis is what prompted her to give up her job as a civilian employee for the Irvine Police Department and move back home with her father and her 16-year-old brother.

“I was so depressed and we were looking for something to bring us together,” Jenna said.

Her late great-grandmother was a pig lover, so the obvious choice was pot-bellied pigs, she said.

“I know they are an unconventional pet, but they are a pet,” Jenna said. “It is not like we are raising livestock in our backyard. These are smaller than normal pigs, they are more like a medium-sized dog.”

Patch attempted to contact Animal Friends of the Valleys, which handles the city’s animal control, for this story but did not receive a call back.

Fondren continues to speculate on the number of pigs the Engens have. “They have had up to 20 pigs inside that house,” Fondren said. “We have been made to live like that for a year.”

Fondren, a retired Navy veteran, said it limits how much he can enjoy the home he and his wife have owned for 12 years.

“I have a $2,000 barbecue grill—you try to go out there and barbecue, or read a book, with the flies and the smell of urine and feces,” Fondren said. “I just want them to be compliant with the law, but clearly they are not.”


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