This article by Chris Mays originally appeared June 19 in the Brattleboro Reformer.

BRATTLEBORO — A neighbor wholeheartedly agrees with the town zoning administrator’s determination that two pigs are farm animals, not pets, and should not be kept at the home.

“In no way, shape or form are these pets,” said Bud Lolatte, who lives at 110 Chestnut St. West and opposed Sarah Short’s appeal of the zoning administrator’s determination. “These are hogs. We’ve gotten apex predators now wandering on the road.”

During a hearing Monday with the Brattleboro Development Review Board, Lolatte said fisher-cats and coyotes are now coming up over the bank from the Whetstone Brook into the neighborhood. He claimed the smell of the pigs were to blame for a couple of cats being taken away by fisher-cats in the past two weeks.

“It’s an issue all around,” he said. “This is a residential neighborhood, always has been a residential neighborhood, lot of kids, lot of pets, lot of small pets. The property in question is basically becoming a barnyard. There are barnyard smells like a leach field five out of the seven days a week.”

Read full article at the Brattleboro Reformer.

(Fair use with written permission from the New England Newspapers Inc.)