A Warren County couple that found themselves in a legal dispute because they wanted to keep a pot-bellied pig as a pet received good news on Wednesday after a judge ruled that the Price family can keep Arnold.
Arnold the pot-bellied pig belongs to Richard and Katherine Price, who reside in the Country Brook Subdivision near Springboro, Ohio.
Katherine Price was born in Vietnam and moved to the United States at age 6. One of the hardest things to leave behind, Price said, was her childhood pet pig. So as an adult, she wanteto have a Vietnamese pot-bellied pet pig as a reminder of her heritage.
But earlier this year, the Country Brook Homeowners’ Association filed a civil suit against the couple for keeping a pet pig and asked for a temporary restraining order to remove Arnold.
In response, the Prices filed a lawsuit alleging discrimination because of Katherine’s heritage. The family attached several news articles from Asia depicting pigs as pets. And they noted HOA rules permit “dogs, cats, and other domestic household pets.”
The Prices got Arnold in 2018 and the pig has been living in their home ever since.
The heart of the issue became who gets to define what a pet is.
On Wednesday, the court ruled that Arnold is a domesticated animal that is regularly kept and fed by members of the household inside the house and is in every way treated as a companion animal as opposed to livestock or a utility animal.
According to the ruling, the Prices were not violating the HOA rules and can keep Arnold.
Source link
