2 days ago
‘Legalizing pigs': Tacoma to change city code to address animal overpopulation
Tacoma soon will implement changes to the city's municipal code to better address animal overpopulation, an issue that some say has overburdened organizations like the Humane Society of Tacoma and Pierce County.
The changes include higher fees for the licensing of certain pets and a new definition for 'community cats' – neighborhood cats that are cared for by the community but don't necessarily count as strays. The code update also includes changes that affect more nontraditional pets, including one that essentially legalizes domestic pig ownership so long as the pigs are licensed, spayed or neutered, microchipped and weigh under 100 pounds.
Council member John Hines, who put forward the ordinance to the City Council, said he wanted to do so after hearing from Humane Society staff that the city code on animals is outdated. He said the series of code changes that the City Council first discussed at its June 3 meeting sought to simultaneously address the outdated language while also combating animal overpopulation.
According to the city, complaints to Tacoma's 311 system related to animal issues have skyrocketed in recent years – reaching 1,467 between 2024 and 2025, compared to the 758 it received between 2022 and 2023. The proposed changes also come after the council in 2023 passed a ban on declawing.
'This is an important issue, people care about it a lot,' Hines told The News Tribune. 'We can do this and also take on some bigger issues in our city at the same time.'
He said the new community cats designation will help ease the workload for Tacoma's animal control and the Humane Society. Residents often call animal control to pick up neighborhood cats and take them to the Humane Society – but sometimes, those cats are feral or semi-feral cats that are being cared for by neighbors. They just don't always have one owner or live indoors.
The changes to the Tacoma Municipal Code would also repeal a section of the code on 'hogs.' Hines said the distinction between hogs and pigs is unclear, but the city generally has understood hogs to be pigs that weigh over 200 pounds that are raised for slaughter. Until the council gave its approval to the changes at its June 10 meeting, the code stated that keeping a hog in Tacoma was a 'public nuisance,' and people who did so would be guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of a $1,000 fine or up to 90 days of imprisonment.
Hines said the strict punishment is likely a holdover from a decades-old policy that doesn't quite fit in 2025 when many people own potbellied or 'teacup' pigs. Pigs have recently made headlines in Tacoma – in 2024, Tacoma police officers gave chase to a small pig that trespassed through Tacoma's Eastside neighborhood.
'I want to say that I really wanted to ban pigs, because this is a city, it's not a farm, it's not Pierce County that has larger land areas,' Council member Sarah Rumbaugh said at the June 3 meeting. 'The reason I agreed to it is that people have potbellied pigs. That's a thing and they have them as pets.'
The changes also include higher annual license fees for dogs and cats – it will soon cost $40 to license an altered dog and $175 for an unaltered dog, up from the $30 and $65, respectively. Licensing altered cats will now cost $30 and unaltered cats will cost $175, up from $20 and $65, respectively. The new ordinance also sets an annual license fee for indoor pigs at $40.
The increased fees will help fund the city's Trap-Neuter-Return program for community cats, to help address the city's animal overpopulation. It also includes stricter requirements for pets to be microchipped and spayed or neutered, to prevent further animal overpopulation and to ensure that lost pets can be returned to their owners.
Local Humane Society chief executive officer Leslie Dalzell called the changes 'thoughtful,' saying they will help reduce unnecessary shelter intake and ensure that the Humane Society can focus its efforts on helping animals 'truly in need.'
'Together, these changes reflect the city of Tacoma's continued leadership in progressive animal welfare policy and our shared commitment to treating every animal as an individual,' Dalzell told The News Tribune in an email.
The city won't begin enforcing the increased fees until Sept. 1 to give the public time to become aware of the change and to pay the fees at a lower rate before they go up. Hines said the educational component that comes with the new fees is more the city's focus over strictly enforcing them – the changes are aiming to ensure that lost pets can be found and cared for. The city soon will begin to inform the Humane Society and local veterinarians of the changes who then can help inform pet owners, he said.
'If animals are licensed and microchipped, then if they are lost, it'll be easy to get them back to their owners. So there's a benefit to owners to have your animals licensed and microchipped,' Hines said.
When the council gave its final approval June 10, the ordinance included an amendment that provided flexibility to the ownership of ducks and other fowl. The city code previously stated that residents can own a minimum maximum of six baby chicks, rabbits, ducklings or other fowl, but it didn't allow for people to buy fewer than six animals to replace them in the event that some pass away.
'By changing the code to allow you to purchase the number that gets you back to six actually honors the original intent of the rules [from] back in 1958,' Hines said at the meeting.
