Emotional support or hogwash? U.S. man fights to keep pet pig
CTV
A man living in Canajoharie, New York, is fighting against village officials to keep his emotional support pig named Ellie.
Officials in his upstate village of Canajoharie see it very differently. To them, the pig is a farm animal Flatt is harbouring in the village illegally.
The case could soon be headed to a criminal trial. But it has already caught the attention of pig partisans who believe the animals should be respected more as companions instead of just a food source.
"I could never dream of giving away somebody who's part of my family," Flatt said recently as he patted the pig in his kitchen. "She's very smart. She's more intelligent than my dogs. I think she can kind of hone in on you when you're feeling bad because she'll want to come in and snuggle with you."
Ellie is a knee-high Vietnamese potbellied pig with a black coat and hooves that clack on the floor as she walks from her kitchen food dish. Flatt was living in South Carolina when he got the pig in 2018, when she was "about as big as a shoe."
