Pig on the lam

  

NY Daily News

 This little piggy should have stayed home.

An abandoned piglet was rescued from a Queens park but cops and animal control officials are on the lookout for another one that slipped away, officials said Monday.

After receiving a call about a loose pig near Baisley Pond Park creative cops cornered the panicked porker under a car and managed to get her into a crate. The neighbor who discovered the pig had managed to keep her in the area by feeding her potato chips.

From there, it was on to the animal rescue folks at Long Island Orchestrating for Nature, who gave the pig a new home and a new name — Babe — while nursing her back to good health.

But before little Babe could cry wee wee wee, cops learned there was another pig in a poke.

“Unfortunately, a few hours later after we got this piglet from the NYPD they called us back and told us someone reported another piglet running loose,” said anthrozoologist John Di Leonardo, president of Long Island Orchestrating for Nature.

“We are currently working under the assumption that someone abandoned them in the park there. The first one was found a few blocks from the park. This other one has been spotted inside the park hours later.”

Lined up at the trough

From the NY Post:

In a stunning move, City Council members are mulling even fatter raises for themselves than the 23 percent boost recommended by a mayor-appointed panel, sources told The Post Wednesday.

The 51-member council on Feb. 5 is expected to push through a hefty raise package for all elected city officials that could include boosting council members’ salaries to as high as $150,000, the sources said. The council is also expected to approve Mayor de Blasio’s controversial plan to shrink the carriage-horse industry and move its entire operation within Central Park.

A three-member panel convened by Blasio last month recommended council members’ salaries rise from $112,500 to $138,315 and that Speaker Melissa Mark-Viverito get a 37-percent pay hike to $154,375.

But some council members have privately griped about wanting higher raises — which would be their first since 2006 — because they’re being forced to give up annual “lulu” bonuses of $8,000 to $25,000 each for chairing committees.

In defense of pigs

From Eyewitness News:

They're not your usual family pet, but a growing number of families are choosing to have pigs as pets.

But now New York City is cracking down.

The city health department says they are simply enforcing the law and a state senator who lives around here asks why then things have been different for the mayor.

"It begs the question where was this enforcement when there was a pet pig in Gracie Mansion the mayor's daughter brought in? Where was that same enforcement," asks Tony Avella.

He wants the law revisited, and promises the city has bigger fish to fry.

From CBS New York:

WCBS 880′s Alex Silverman first spoke with disabled Navy veteran Nadine Darsanlal last month about her pet pig named Wilbur.

At the time, Wilbur was a therapy pig in training, being taught how to help others.

“I’ve had no issues legally, no,” Darsanlal told Silverman.

But she said in the past month she has faced “complete harassment.” Darsanlal said someone complained about Wilbur.

“The pig has not bothered them, hasn’t hurt anybody,” she told Silverman.

The Health Department served her a notice.

“I have to have him certified in Suffolk to live there in order for me to have him as my pet,” Darsanlal said.

“As of now, Wilbur lives in Suffolk until further notice. He’s registered under Suffolk with his microchips, so he’s technically ok,” Darsanlal told 1010 WINS’ Mona Rivera.

Pig has gotta go

That's some pig!

From the Times Ledger:

Nadine Darsanlal’s life was never the same after she teamed up with her service dog Harvey three years ago, and now she is trying to help others discover the therapeutic power of animals by training her second pet — a clever micro pig named Wilbur.

Darsanlal found Harvey after serving in the U.S. Navy from 1997-2001. After she got out she contracted an illness that left her partially disabled, she said. The College Point resident had trouble bending down to pick objects off the ground and getting out of bed in the morning due to chronic pain, but found relief after her application for a service dog was accepted by an organization called Dogs for Deaf and Disabled Americans, which partnered her with the pooch. Harvey picks up objects, turns on lights, puts on shoes and generally lifts up her spirits.

About a year and a half ago, Darsanlal decided to purchase a pig as a playmate for Harvey, she said. When the tiny porker arrived at their home, he became fast friends with his canine co-habitant and had a great personality. That is when she decided to train Wilbur to become a therapy pet, using her knowledge of training Harvey.

The sow can shake hands, sit and perform all manner of tricks. If the word “apple juice” is spoken, even from 20 yards away, it will come running.

Darsanlal has taken the duo to area schools, including the Renaissance Charter School in Jackson Heights. The principal there declared Harvey and Wilbur well-behaved and “a delight” for both students and teachers.

But it might be difficult for Wilbur to be recognized as a therapy animal in New York City.

Pig controversy at Whitestone co-op

From the NY Post:

Residents of a Queens co-op say the pet pig rooting around their courtyard isn’t kosher — and are determined to get the city to evict the unwelcome ungulate from the complex.

“What is this, Tobacco Road? I feel like I’m in another hemisphere!” one resident fumed. “Parents don’t want to let their kids play in the courtyard with pig pee and poop.”

“It’s just ludicrous that there’s a barnyard right under my nose!”

The co-op board at Clearview Gardens in Whitestone recently told Lou and Danielle Forgione, parents of Petey the Pig, that it had received numerous complaints about the 8-month-old porker since the summer but took no action while it consulted its bylaws, which forbid only dogs.

In the interim, the city took the bull by the horns.

“Harboring a pig is illegal in NYC! Must be removed from NYC premises as soon as possible,” reads a Nov. 20 Health Department notice slipped under their door.

The Forgiones remain defiant.

“He’s not a farm animal. He’s part of the family. We’re going to fight. We’re never giving him up,” Danielle, 33, told The Post.

I say we let them keep the pig and ban Toby Stavisky instead.

College Point pig heads for greener pastures

From the Daily News:

A friendly, 58-pound pig - plucked off a Queens street on Father's Day - is heading to greener pastures.

The stray swine, named Wilbur by the city's Animal Care & Control staff, was found wandering around 31st Ave. and College Point Blvd. in College Point.

Police easily corralled the porky pedestrian into a carrier and brought him to ACC's Manhattan shelter.

"The pig cooperated," said ACC spokesman Richard Gentles. "He was unharmed and uninjured, but he was dirty and smelled like grease and oil."

While uncommon, it's not unheard of for cops and animal control officers to wrangle sheep, cows, goats and other unusual critters off city streets. Some are escapees from livestock markets while others are pets.

Gentles said Wilbur won't find his way on to someone's dinner plate. Instead, he is going to live at a sanctuary outside the city.

Also, the Queens County Farm Museum has stopped selling pork.

Will the pigs return to the park?

From the Times Ledger:

Last year a family day at Brookville Park turned into an out-of-control bash where liquor was sold and litter was spread all over the southeast Queens greenspace.

An advocate for the park is calling on the city to not let that happen again this year.

Fred Kress, president of the Queens Coalition for Parks, sent a letter to the city Parks Department asking it not to allow party promoter June Balloon to hold his fourth-annual family day at the park this Saturday. Last year’s celebration, which was co-hosted by state Assemblywoman Michelle Titus (D-Far Rockaway) and Jacques Leandre, who was running for City Council last year, left the park in a state of disarray with crews picking up trash for hours the day afterward.

“I expect Parks to protect our parks from animals — both two- and four-legged,” Kress wrote in his letter.

This year’s celebration, which is not sponsored by Titus and Leandre, was advertised on the social networking website Facebook and had dozens of people invited. The flier included on the Facebook page said there would be musical performances, food, games and face painting for children.

This was not the fun that took place during last year’s picnic Aug. 22.

Someone set up a table that advertised “open bar, ladies only” and sold alcohol to parkgoers. The party went on long after its 7 p.m. closing time, and when the parks manager went to the greenspace the next morning, it was filled with empty bottles, discarded food and sexually explicit pamphlets.

Kress and other advocates arrived at the park to see the damage firsthand and saw Balloon and Titus’ husband, Eric DeBerry, arguing with the parks manager, saying they did nothing wrong.

Leandre said he is not involved with this year’s picnic and will not be attending it because he will be out of town with his youth football group, the Rosedale Jets. Titus’ office did not return phone calls for comment and June Balloon could not be reached for comment.

Although the Parks Department refused to grant a permit for the party as of press time Tuesday, fliers were still going up in the neighborhood, according to Kress.

Gioia smells blood, pounces on rival's supporters

From the Daily News:

When public advocate candidate Bill de Blasio was kicked off the ballot Thursday for a typo in his petition filings, his rivals offered their sympathy.

But one of them - City Councilman Eric Gioia of Queens - jumped on the phone that night looking for endorsements from the Brooklyn councilman's supporters.

One union official who got a late-night call from the eager Gioia wasn't impressed.

"It was over-the-top inappropriate," he said.

De Blasio is fighting his ballot boot, caused by a mistake on the cover sheet of his petitions. Three other candidates - Democrats Mark Green and Norman Siegel and Republican Alex Zablocki - have said a technicality shouldn't knock de Blasio out.

Gioia agreed - but that didn't stop him or his staff from near-instantly trolling for support from de Blasio backers.

"I was stunned, frankly - it was so brazen," the union official said.

Neighbors to pig owners: "Romeo must die"

From the NY Post:

Swine flu hysteria has made life hell for a pot-bellied pig name Romeo in Queens this week, as fear of the quick-spreading new illness have turned the once happy hog into a porky pariah.

The 300-pound Romeo, who has been the beloved pet of the Cummings family for about two years in St. Albans, is alarming many neighbors who believe he would be better off as a pork chop than a pet.

Oink, Oink!

And also because it's Monday, here's a picture of a real live pig crapping all over Brooklyn. (I heard it was named after Marty Markowitz.)