By Kathryn Bender, Star-Bulletin
Oink enjoys a treat at his Crestview home, aided by
pet owner Susan Lohrey, in this file photo.
can stay
A judge sides with the
160-pound pot-bellied porker
By Linda HosekStar-Bulletin
But Oink the pig, albeit a farm animal, was first and foremost a pet who was in the midst of his 15 minutes of fame yesterday afternoon.
As Oink smudged a television lens or two with his ever-wet snout, Terry and Susan Lohrey fed Oink his favorite fruits to celebrate a court ruling that lets them keep the hairy swine at their Crestview home.
"You better believe I'm relieved," Terry Lohrey said. "He's a pet."
The state had argued that the Lohreys violated a city ordinance by keeping a farm animal in an enclosure within 300 feet of their property.
"You can call Oink an 'uncle,' but he'd still be a farm animal under the statute," Deputy Prosecutor Scott Spallina argued at Ewa District Court.
But Judge Barbara Richardson didn't rule on whether a farm animal can be a pet or whether Oink's alleged pen was too close to the Lohreys' house.
She said the warning citation was insufficient, and acquitted them of the violation, which carries a $25 fine.
Earle Partington, the Lohreys' attorney, said the warning ordered the Lohreys to "reduce number of pig by one week."
"Does that mean reduce the number of pigs or reduce the weight of the pig?" Partington had asked in court.
He also said the Lohreys don't have an enclosure or pen for the year-old Oink, who was raised by the couple from age 4 weeks.
Oink waddles around the entire yard, his skinny tail wagging behind his proud pot belly, his perky snout poised for a wet kiss.
When Oink was rousted from the shade after the trial, he was outside the area the state had defined as his pen. And he makes his bed, so to speak, next to the fence even farther from the alleged pen.
Spallina defended the warning citation, saying the state relied on the Lohreys' common sense to know that it meant they had to remove the pig and the pen.
"They're still in violation," he said.
"We'll see if they will comply."
But Terry Lohrey, a smile stretched over his weathered face, said he planned to keep his increasingly lazy pet.
Partington, who summed up the case as "pig persecution," said he advised Lohrey to remove one of the gates that the state had said created an enclosure.
Lohrey said the situation stemmed from an argument he had with a neighbor after the neighbor's dog bit his cat. He said the neighbor threatened to call the Humane Society. But he also said the neighbor signed a petition to support Oink.
He said if the state had prevailed, he would have searched for a farm for Oink.
But Lohrey also said Oink would probably get sick from diseases of real farm animals. "He's never been with other pigs," he said.