SPRINGFIELD -- A note to local animal lovers: Pigs are prohibited as house pets in Springfield. Especially the ones that can grow up to 800 pounds.

City animal control officers seized two piglets and four rabbits from a home in Forest Park on Monday, according to Thomas J. O'Connor Animal Control and Adoption Center Director Pam Peebles.

While officers initially believed the home was abandoned, an owner has come forward and is expected to pick up the rabbits this afternoon. But the piglets, which Peebles said could weigh up to 800 pounds once fully grown, are banned as pets by city code and will likely be transferred to a rescue farm.

"The pigs can't stay in the city, they have to be relocated," Peebles said. "Should [the owner] not show up, we're probably going to be looking for adoptive homes for everybody or transferring them to a rescue farm."

The animals are currently staying in kennels at the shelter, where they were munching on breakfast when MassLive visited Thursday morning. They are in decent health, but were not kept in good conditions at their previous home, Peebles said.

The pigs were kept in dog kennels in a garage and had contracted parasites, Peebles said.

"They were in reasonably good condition except for reasonably severe intestinal parasites," she said.

And the rabbits were also not housed in a well-kept shelter. The owner would be expected to improve conditions when the rabbits are reclaimed, she said.

"The husbandry was lacking," Peebles said. "They were not in a clean habitat."

The shelter has seen an unexpected influx of pigs in recent months -- five in less than four months, she said. Unlike the piglets seized Monday, most are pot-bellied pigs, which while illegal, typically do not exceed 300 pounds and can be kept as pets without being a nuisance.

"It's a little surprising. We've been on a little bit of a roll here," Peebles said. "We have become on livestock alert."

City code prohibits the keeping of pigs as house pets, with the exception of animals that can be fed solely using "garbage or other refuse" from the land on which the pig is kept.