Evidently, getting rid of loose hogs was not easily accomplished

As residents of a major city, neighbors are exasperated by City incompetence, especially regarding low staffing of police, rare prosecutions and even rarer convictions. The principle disturbance is the costly nuisance of nightly car thefts and theft from vehicles. The populace is outraged. Politicians throw up their hands and lie that there is little they can do. They are teaching people to take law enforcement into their own hands which is never a good idea.

And some things never change. Doing some genealogical research I come across the following passage. In January 1885, the residents of the area elected to incorporate the town of Plant City, Florida with elections and a marshal and alderman and every other mark of a civilized and progressing city of the future.

Despite the ambitions of the residents though, it was still a growing town, only recently carved out of the brush and still semi-agricultural. Or more than semi. From Plant City Its Origin and History by Quintilla Greer Bruton and David E. Bailey, Jr..

In the town minutes for that first year, Clerk Speir, very faithfully and at some length, reported on what appeared to be the first major problem confronting those first alderman. It was the problem presented by stray hogs which were allowed to run loose.

At the September 12 meeting it was decided that something had to be done to cope with this growing nuisance that was bringing complaints from residents. Alderman Tyner moved that hogs be taken off the streets by the first of October, after which time those found loose will be put up in a pen and the owner forced to pay fifty cents per head for their release. If they were not taken out within twenty-four hours, the pigs or hogs would be sold and proceeds, after paying expenses, would go to the owner.

Evidently, getting rid of loose hogs was not easily accomplished, as the matter was before the council again on November 4, when it was "resolved that the hogs be kept out of the corporate limits until there shall be an election for councilman, at which time the vote will be taken by the citizens for or against hogs." So the responsibility for solving the hog problem was to be shifted to the citizens.

Reading those early town minutes, it's not clear whether or not the hog problem was submitted to a vote of the people at the general election in January, 1986, as planned. But it is clear that hogs on the streets continued to be a major problem and appeared to receive more attention than any other subject. The town clerk continued regularly to record action proposed or taken on the hog law as late as 1892.

At the first meeting of the new council, January 4, 1886, aldermen turned their attention to this unsolved problem. The hog law was suspended for 30 days, with the understanding that the marshal would pick up only male hogs over six months old and have the owner pay one dollar and expenses for shelter and feed. Enforcement was delayed another 30 days on February 4, when it was moved that every man owning a residence be requested to "stop up" under his house to keep hogs out.

Further thirty-day extensions were allowed on April 8 and May 7. At council meetings on June 3 and August 12, 1886, sixty-day extensions were moved and carried. Months later, on September 1, 1887, it was ordered that an election be held on the second Saturday of October and a vote taken to see if the hogs would be allowed to remain on the streets or be removed. The town minutes had no further reference to the dilemma that year, and it was not mentioned in 1888, perhaps because of the more serious problems resulting from the yellow fever epidemic.

The next note in the minutes about hogs was on March 19, 1889, when it was ordered that everyone in town be notified to fix their houses to keep the hogs out. But on April 15, 1889, the following ordinance was passed:

After the first day of May, 1889, it shall be unlawful for any hogs or pigs to run at large inside corporate limits of Plant City, and the penalty for the violation of said orders shall be the same as the Article 9, Section 14 of the town ordinance. All hogs or pigs that are found running at large inside corporate limits of Plant City on or after said date should be put in the pound, and a charge of 50 cents a head shall be assessed with expense of feeding and care, for a period of five days, after such time that shall be sold at public auction to the highest bidder, and after all lawful expenses and cost have been paid, balance, if any, shall be refunded the owners of such hogs and pigs.

The people had won!

Evidently, the hog law was rarely enforced, as, on January 29, 1890, it was ordered to have the marshal obtain a list of the registered voters for the purpose of determining their opinion regarding hogs on the streets and report back. On February 17, 1890, it was ordered that the hog law be enforced. The town council refused to bow to pressure when in April, 1892, D. L. Crum, prominent stockman, presented a petition bearing thirty-four names asking that the hog ordinance be repealed. The petition was denied.

Living in cities has, apparently, always been complicated with poorly enforced ordinances abused by hogs and scofflaws alike.