Franklin County, IL. (ECWd) –

After hearing people talk about seeing dogs, pigs, goats, and other farm animals inside the Franklin County Public Hospital, this memo (below) appeared on a facebook post that is from the Human Resources Department at the hospital.

I contacted the Hospital’s Public Relations Department and verified the authenticity of this memo.

In the memo, the writer explains that the practice of allowing people to bring pets into the hospital must be stopped unless express written permission by the attending physician is given.

It specifically targets pigs and goats with the statement that “Pigs and Goats that have recently been in the hospital do not fall under this policy” (of personal therapy pets) and the “practice [of allowing them in the hospital] must stop immediately“.

To contrast Franklin Hospital’s determination that pigs, goats, and other farms animals are not personal pets, a recent court decision from the Fifth Appellate Court, in City of Sparta v. Tim Page, upheld a lower Court’s ruling that chickens can be, and are in this case, considered personal pets since the owner neither registered his pet chickens for commercial or agricultural use, and that it was essentially the same as raising a garden on his property.

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