A Lake Forest couple who sued their neighbor for keeping three pigs on her North Shore property will look to the Illinois Appellate Court after a Lake County judge refused Tuesday to kick the swine out of town.
Robert and Kathleen Murphy said they want the judge’s ruling overturned.
“We just want the pigs to go,” Robert Murphy said.
In his ruling, Circuit Judge Mitchell Hoffman upheld the City Council’s decision last summer to allow Estelle Gonzales Walgreen to keep her pets at home until at least 2011 — when an ordinance regulating farm animals takes effect.
Under the new rules, farm animals such as pigs, horses, chickens and donkeys will be allowed only on minimum 10-acre lots and must be kept at least 200 feet from neighboring properties.
“I think the city chose the right path to settle this issue,” Hoffman said after a brief hearing in Waukegan.
Walgreen moved her pigs onto her 2.3-acre lot last year to the dismay of the Murphys, who said the pigs were noisy, dirty and posed a threat to their safety if the animals escaped. More than 300 people signed a petition agreeing with the Murphys, but neither the city nor the judge said the pigs — Pinky, who is 14, Piggy, 13, and Cooper, 2 — should be evicted.
The Murphys’ attorney, Robert O’Donnell, argued that zoning rules clearly ban farm animals from residential lots. The judge said because the ordinance does not list a pig as a farm animal, he did not see a need to intervene.
Walgreen, a businesswoman with two young children, did not appear in court Tuesday. “We believe the judge made the right decision,” said Charles Byrum, her attorney.
Walgreen, who moved into her Sheridan Road home after her divorce from a member of the Walgreens drugstore family, told city officials she feared moving her two older 200-pound-plus pigs because they have arthritis. She also worried how her two young children would react to losing their favorite playmates, she said.
The Murphys said they would continue the legal battle, , adding that the animals could hurt the value of their property.
“No one wants to live next door to pigs,” Robert Murphy said.
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skuczka@tribune.com
