ESSEX — A Vermont couple appears to have found new homes for dozens of mini-pigs that were in an Essex home.

Zoning administrator Sharon Kelley said she went through the whole house on Tuesday, and the pigs are gone.

Pig breeder Florence Gruber and her partner Alan Tsefrekas had been keeping over 40 pigs inside Tsefrekas’ home for about a month before the town ordered them to relocate the animals.

They had until Tuesday to remove them. Kelley said local and state regulations define pigs, even miniature potbellied pigs, as agricultural animals. She said agricultural animals are prohibited from living within a residential neighborhood.