Hampton Style - August 31, 2007 -

by Deborah Schoeneman
photographs by Jessica Craig-Martin and Stephanie McNiel

At the Water Mill estate she shares with her husband, the writer Jay McInerney, the media heiress Anne Hearst keeps a pet emu named Einstein. A bird that resembles a cross between a dinosaur and a peacock, he was a gift from environmentalist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a friend of hers through the Riverkeeper charity. Hearst tends to warn guests that Einstein may seem friendly, but he has a bit of a pecking problem. Lean in too close and an earring-or, significantly worse, an eye-could get speared by his long beak.

As a precaution, the McInerneys posted a sign that says "Beware of Emu," lest any of the couple's guests at regular Tuesday-night dinner parties wander across their property, where a rabbit, a wallaby, chickens, geese, and ducks mingle with cats and dogs. They all seem to coexist in a friendly manner in the farm area near the main house. The animals are quite civilized. By sunset, they tuck themselves in for bed in stalls.

The Hearst-McInerney clan eat fresh eggs from their farm animals, but Hearst says she'd never eat any of the other animals. "I just don't have the heart," she says. Thoreau, a llama, lives across the field with a herd of goats, often visited by wild deer. Koi fish swim in the pond.

"Everyone gets along great," says Hearst, leaning in to nuzzle Einstein. "I can't imagine being happier."

A variety of exotic pets live on some of the East End's most prime real estate in exchange for nothing but love, loyalty, and affection. And they don't even have to pay rent or deal with housemates! Hearst and McInerney are hardly the only exotic-pet owners, though they do seem to have the largest collection for an area dominated by dogs small enough to fit in designer handbags on the Jitney.

Hearst's interest in farm animals started when she was a kid and her family owned a farm in California. Before they got married, McInerney had some experience owning exotic pets in New York. His ex-wife, Helen Bransford, a vegan, keeps two potbelly pigs, Pinky and Forkie, at her East Hampton home. Back when McInerney and Bransford were married, they used to sneak Forkie into their co-op at the Carlyle in a luggage bag. Now Forkie-all 123 pounds of him, that is-lives full-time at the beach, where she likes to hang out with Pinky, her younger 25-pound pal, in Bransford's backyard. They spend a lot of time in the house, too. Forkie likes to curl up on the living room couch.

"They are so intelligent and social. There's even some debate that they are smarter than dolphins," says Bransford, a petite blonde from the South who calls Forkie "my pretty little girl" with "the mind of a criminal." Forkie has been known to open the fridge door while foraging for snacks, or to tug a tablecloth out from under a table setting.

Forkie also sometimes gets treated like a criminal. When she wanders onto the street, the police bring her back in a squad car. (They know where she lives.) Bransford sometimes takes the pigs out walking in order to file down their hooves, but she doesn't like them to roam free, lest a fox or a deer decide to go hunting.

Bransford enjoys pampering her pigs. She dresses them up in costumes and grooms them. "They are very sensual," she says. "They love to be brushed." Another bonus is that no one has ever been allergic to the pigs, though not everyone likes to snuggle in as close as Bransford. "There's a trick I taught Forkie," she says. "Which is to sit. Then, as a reward, I take a strip of green pepper or a strawberry, and she takes it from my lip at the command 'Kiss.'" As for jokes about her home being a pigsty? "I don't even listen to those anymore."

The adventures of Forkie and Pinky inspired Bransford's friend Jimmy Buffett to write a book about them. Entitled Swine Not?, it will be published by Little, Brown in November, with illustrations by Bransford herself.

Prudential Douglas Elliman broker Jane Gill has a Moluccan cockatoo from Australia named Peaches and an Amazonian parrot named Flower. They live inside her Sagaponack house during the winter and spend a lot of time in an aviary in the backyard during the summer. The birds were a gift from her father to her daughter, Grace, who's now 12.

"The birds live for 50 to 75 years," says Gill. "You never have to mourn the pet." Gill keeps telling Grace that she's going to have to take the birds with her when she goes to college. "But I have a feeling that they will be mine in years to come, says Gill.

The birds love to shower with Gill. They perform long monologues in bird jibberish while she's cooking. When the phone rings, they both screech out, "Hello!"

Peaches enjoys going to the beach and to Gill's Bridgehampton office, but Flower prefers to stay home to watch Animal Planet on television. "Peaches loves traveling and she's very social," says Gill, who also has two cats and two dogs that get along well with the birds. The birds get their wings clipped every spring to prevent escape. Gill once had to climb a 30-foot tree to rescue Peaches.

About seven years ago, Gill started seeing guinea hens in her yard. On the recommendation of a farmer, Gill started feeding the hens cracked corn and popcorn and they stayed as her pets, earning their keep by protecting her from insect bites. "They spend all day eating ticks," she says, "so I don't have to worry about Lyme Disease."

Artist Jaime Johnson, the 25-year-old daughter of pharmaceutical heir Woody Johnson, has two Bengal cats, Harley and George. They have spent a lot of time at her dad's East Hampton estate but now they're mostly city dwellers. Johnson doesn't like to walk them. "I think that would be weird," she says, "I'm not into parading them around but I let them out on the terrace to chase birds and play fetch. They're ultra-feline but have that doglike need for stimulation. Harley likes to sit on the tub and swat at the water when I take a shower. He's 16 pounds and jumps on my back but doesn't get too aggressive."

Sag Harbor artists Eric Fischl and April Gornik also have two Bengals, Hooper and Bebop, and they walk them on leashes every morning for about an hour. "They are incredibly smart and beautiful," says Gornik. "The worst thing is that they need a lot of stimulation and attention, but that's a drawback only for people who don't want to spend the time interacting with them. And they love tummy rubs." They just have to restrict the cats from eating the local birds.

Owning an exotic pet is a bit more challenging for a single East Ender, though it could also be a great opportunity to find a fellow animal lover. Gill, who was Bruce Weber's first model and had a contract with Ralph Lauren for many years, is a bit concerned that her close relationship with her exotic birds may turn off potential boyfriends who may not want to share a shower with a talking pet. And Bransford worries that her cozy relationship with her potbelly pigs may impede her dating life. She quips, "My friends say, if you want to ever have another date in your life, don't go too far with this pig thing."