Mrs. abcaines and I live in a neighborhood outside of the city limits that is a mix of suburban housing and properties where horses are kept. Our neighbor behind us took advantage of this semi rural zoning to raise three little pigs despite the fact that her property is more of a suburban type of lot, approximately .25 acres. The pigs were kept in a pen that butted up against our property. Other than the annoyance of smells that accompany the keeping of pigs wafting down into our property, I didn't care if they had pigs; they certainly made much less noise than some of our other neighbors' dogs.
This morning, a loud shot rang out which, at first, I thought was a transformer blowing. Then another, then a third. Walking out to investigate, we could see the neighbors were gathered in the pen working on the pigs. My initial response was a bit of chagrin at an apparent lack of judgement on their part, discharging a relatively large weapon (my first thought was a .357 magnum) to dispatch the piggies when a .22 would have sufficed with much less noise.
I called the sheriff's dispatcher and she had a deputy return my call. It turns out that the neighbor had originally tried to arrange to have the pigs taken care of by a professional slaughterer but he couldn't get his equipment down the steep driveway leading to the pen. She notified the sheriff's office of their plans including the weapon they intended to use, a 6.5 Creedmoor ( roughly equivalent to a .270) hunting rifle. He asked if they had a smaller caliber but they told him that was all they had. Since there aren't any laws other than a 1958 Washington statue that a slaughtering weapon must dispatch an animal humanely, the deputy couldn't prohibit them from carrying out their plan. He only asked them to make sure they did so well after the limits of a local noise ordinance, which they did. They also assured him they wouldn't be raising any more pigs after this.
I'm glad our neighbors cleared their plans through proper channels and even in the Socialist Republic of Washington, there is still freedom to do this sort of thing. Mostly, I'm glad I won't have to smell pigs when I walk out to my shop.
You know, it'd be nice if they offered us a few packages of pork steaks in exchange for the minor annoyance caused.
This morning, a loud shot rang out which, at first, I thought was a transformer blowing. Then another, then a third. Walking out to investigate, we could see the neighbors were gathered in the pen working on the pigs. My initial response was a bit of chagrin at an apparent lack of judgement on their part, discharging a relatively large weapon (my first thought was a .357 magnum) to dispatch the piggies when a .22 would have sufficed with much less noise.
I called the sheriff's dispatcher and she had a deputy return my call. It turns out that the neighbor had originally tried to arrange to have the pigs taken care of by a professional slaughterer but he couldn't get his equipment down the steep driveway leading to the pen. She notified the sheriff's office of their plans including the weapon they intended to use, a 6.5 Creedmoor ( roughly equivalent to a .270) hunting rifle. He asked if they had a smaller caliber but they told him that was all they had. Since there aren't any laws other than a 1958 Washington statue that a slaughtering weapon must dispatch an animal humanely, the deputy couldn't prohibit them from carrying out their plan. He only asked them to make sure they did so well after the limits of a local noise ordinance, which they did. They also assured him they wouldn't be raising any more pigs after this.
I'm glad our neighbors cleared their plans through proper channels and even in the Socialist Republic of Washington, there is still freedom to do this sort of thing. Mostly, I'm glad I won't have to smell pigs when I walk out to my shop.
You know, it'd be nice if they offered us a few packages of pork steaks in exchange for the minor annoyance caused.
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