It’s a neighbourly dispute in a residential area of Spalding but with pork rather than beef.
Those whose homes border Jack the pig’s sty at the bottom of a Wygate Road garden say he’s smelly, attracts flies and is noisy.
His owners though say they rescued him six years ago, try to give him the best life possible and it’s completely legal.
Recently Jack’s pen and where it’s muddy enough to wallow has been extended so it backs on to Ieva Baranovska and her family’s garden.
“It makes our life unbearable,” said Ieva, who works from home. “Our kitchen windows are a few metres away from where the pig lives but as far away as possible from the owner’s house.
“It smells like we live on a farm and it’s worse when wet.
“We get more flies entering our house.
“We built a gazebo for family dinners and now there is a pig not even a metre away.”
“The pig has a wheelie bin which it jumps on and chucks around making a noise all day.
“People laugh about it, but for us it’s a tragedy. If we wanted to sell the home I don’t think we’d be able to.”
Ieva recently spoke to Polina and Damian Wisniewski whose property the pigsty also backs on to.
They say they’ve reluctantly lived alongside it for five years.
“We have to keep replacing the fly traps,” Damian says pointing to one hanging outside the kitchen window. “The pig has also broken both our fences at times.”
Jack the pig is owned by Carl and Michelle Repper.
“We’ve had Jack for six years and it only seems that in the last couple of weeks there’s been any issues.
“Our neighbours either side are fine with him and they would have more reason to be annoyed.
“We have a licence to own him and one to walk him on the street if we wanted to.
“We rehomed him from someone in Essex who thought they’d bought a ‘micro-pig’. There’s no such thing though and they soon grow to the size Jack is now.
“Jack’s very caring, friendly and doesn’t do any harm. He actually poos in the corner closer to our house and we’re constantly cleaning after him.
“He does make a noise with the bin but we take it away from him at night. We did forget on a couple of occasions but we’ve apologised for that.”
A spokesman for South Holland District Council said that the Animal and Plant Health Agency had confirmed all pig licences were in place.
“Officers have visited the site on two occasions, during which no issues have been observed. The owner has taken steps to reduce noise levels, and advice has been provided on how to correctly record concerns, to allow us to continue to investigate as required.”
Part of the sty as seen from one of the neighbouring properties.
