
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: MONDAY, November 8, 1993                   TAG: 9311080080
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: NEWPORT NEWS                                LENGTH: Short

PETTING ZOO ANIMALS KILLED AS PRECAUTION

About two dozen animals from a petting zoo were killed to prevent the spread of a deadly disease, even though it isn't known how many of the animals were infected.

Virginia officials ordered the animals killed because bovine tuberculosis was detected among animals at the Peninsula Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals' popular petting zoo.

Last week, local SPCA director Eugene Falls tranquilized many animals he has raised by hand and sent them to Ivor, where state veterinarians delivered lethal injections.

In 25 years working with animals, Falls estimates he has put down hundreds of thousands of animals. But he fought for several weeks to save the petting zoo animals, which were given a death sentence in October.

The animals included sheep and goats, a potbellied pig, a llama and docile antelope named Matilda, George and Snowball.

A kangaroo and donkey were spared because those species aren't threatened by the disease. Animals in the SPCA's exotic animal compound were also spared.

The exotic animal exhibit was born in 1973, when Falls received a call about a lion tied to a telephone pole in Hampton. Word spread that Falls would take in other exotic animals cast off by zoos, circuses and local people.

Within a few years, Falls added the petting zoo, and the SPCA shelter was attracting about 50,000 visitors a year.

by CNB