Photograph: Geoffrey Robinson/Rex Features

DC Law provides that:

No person shall import into the District, possess, display, offer for sale, trade, barter, exchange, or adoption, or give as a household pet any living member of the animal kingdom including those born or raised in captivity, except the following: domestic dogs (excluding hybrids with wolves, coyotes, or jackals), domestic cats (excluding hybrids with ocelots or margays), domesticated rodents and rabbits, captive-bred species of common cage birds, nonpoisonous snakes, fish, and turtles, traditionally kept in the home for pleasure rather than for commercial purposes, and racing pigeons (when kept in compliance with permit requirements).

As much as you insist that pigs really are clean, please remember: “Keeping, herding, and feeding of hogs, in pens or otherwise, within the District shall be considered a nuisance injurious to health.” Cows, horses and mules are okay, but only if kept in a stable, and only if the city’s Department of Health is notified.

So Unfortunately I am going to have to report back to my clients that they will not be able to own a micro pig in the District of Columbia.