Request By:
Mr. Lonnie R. Watkins, Jr.
P.O. Box 628
Cadiz, Kentucky 42211
Opinion
Opinion By: Steven L. Beshear, Attorney General; By: Walter C Herdman, Assistant Deputy Attorney General
This is in response to your letter of November 21, in which you relate that the city of Cadiz is proposing to annex a sizeable area around the city which includes some farm or agricultural land. At the present time the city has an ordinance prohibiting the raising of hogs inside the city limits. You raise the question as to whether or not this ordinance will affect the raising of hogs in the area once it is annexed to the city.
Our response would be in the affirmative since once the annexed area becomes a part of the city the ordinance governing the entire city would automatically include such an area. On the other hand, we believe that the ordinance prohibiting the raising of hogs inside the city limits could be amended to exclude land of a certain acreage used for agricultural purposes that is located within the city. Also to be included in such amendment would be restrictions relating to health and sanitation conditions in the excluded area.
In McQuillin, Municipal Corporations, Vol. 7, § 24.293 provision is made that under the city's general powers to protect the public health and welfare or to suppress nuisances, it can ordinarily regulate and prohibit the keeping of swine within the municipality. This section further indicates that the city can prohibit the keeping of swine in a thickly built-up residential sections; however, the view is also expressed that an ordinance which provides unqualifiedly that hogs may not be kept in a municipality, is too broad and sweeping and will not be upheld since it fails to take into consideration whether or not particular hogpens are a nuisance. Thus, the law clearly indicates that a distinction can be made as to where within the city the raising of hogs are to be prohibited and at the same time grants the right to designate other areas not involving populated areas where it is permissible to raise hogs. In this respect we quote the following from the referred to section:
"An ordinance regulating or prohibiting swine within a municipality or within a certain section of the municipality must be reasonable. It has been held that a city cannot prohibit the keeping of a reasonable number of hogs in a large pasture. However, an ordinance may prohibit the keeping of hogs and swine in parts of a city that at present are rural in character, if in the light of existing conditions the prohibition is reasonable."
We trust the above sufficiently answers your question.