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The House Is A Pigsty, You Snore All Night And I Love It

Sydney Morning Herald
By Stathi Paxinos and AAP
April 24 2002

Three not-so-little pigs have won a legal battle to remain in their own home.

A tribunal has ruled that Lily, Lucy and Oliver don't need a special permit to stay with Maggie and Neil Park in their house in Gisborne, 50km north of Melbourne.

Mrs Park said she was "as happy as a pig in mud" over the outcome of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal challenge, the latest in a series of protests from local residents over their unusual house pets.

She said the pigs make a bit of noise when they get grumpy, but on the whole they really like nothing more than quietly watching their favourite television programs with the family.

Lucy is a real telly addict and jumps onto their bed at night to keep them company.

"She burps and farts and snores, everything my husband does so I'm pretty used to it," Mrs Park said. "She gets up on the bed when she wants to have a little bit of R'n'R and tries to get under the doona.

"But when she gets up, one of us has to get out of bed because she's so heavy. She's already broken a couple of slats."

The trouble began last year when some of the Parks's neighbours did not take to the 200-kilogram porkers. They went to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal to prevent the Parks receiving a permit to keep the pigs, alleging that the animals were smelly and noisy.

But the tribunal gave the Parks permission to keep their beloved pets at home.

A relieved Mrs Park, who has only recently received the tribunal's decision, said she and her husband would have moved from their property had the ruling gone against them.

"They're part of our family. You don't get rid of your kids," she said yesterday.

The Parks, who don't have children, lavish affection on the three pigs. They have the run of the house, with the couple even allocating a bedroom for the pigs, furnishing it with mattresses, blankets and a pet door.

Mrs Park denied that the pigs were smelly or dirty, saying the reputation stemmed from commercial piggeries where the animals are kept in crowded conditions.

"I'd prefer to have my pigs in the house than a lot of people that I have had in the house or kids who are noisy and messy and smelly," Mrs Park said.

"They give you a lot of love and affection."

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