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

DATE: MONDAY, June 5, 1995                   TAG: 9506050070
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH                                LENGTH: Medium

ANIMAL-RIGHTS GROUPS SEEK CRUELTY CHARGE IN PIG SHOOTINGS

In letters and phone calls to Gov. George Allen, activists are asking that a criminal charge of animal cruelty be considered for H. Kirby Burch, director of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.

Burch, an avid hunter, was publicly reprimanded by Allen for pulling a .45-caliber handgun and shooting a sow and a young male pig while leading a caravan of state officials to a dinner meeting at False Cape State Park in Virginia Beach.

The acting state internal auditor, who conducted an investigation of the April 26 incident, cleared Burch of any legal violations. But Joseph D. Freiburger, the acting state internal auditor, said his office did not study a possible cruelty charge.

Groups including the Virginia Beach Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Alliance for Animals in Virginia are upset that Burch shot the sow in the spine and left it alive on the side of a dirt road.

Burch did not kill the sow, according to investigators, because he had only one bullet left and decided to save it to protect the caravan against a possible attack from other pigs.

Two park staffers returned later and shot the sow with a revolver borrowed from a park officer. Both pigs became fare for a barbecue honoring Virginia National Guardsmen.

``Many of us are familiar with responsible hunting [and] Mr. Burch's failure to put the animal to death was inexcusable and unacceptable,'' Virginia Beach SPCA Executive Director Sharon Q. Adams wrote in a May 19 letter to Allen.

Adams said the SPCA wanted to file a complaint with the Virginia Beach Animal Control Bureau, but could not because no one from the group witnessed the shooting.

Animal cruelty is a misdemeanor in Virginia. State law defines an offender as ``any person who ... willfully inflicts inhumane injury or pain not connected with bona fide scientific or medical experimentation or cruelly or unnecessarily beats, maims, mutilates or kills any animal whether belonging to himself or another.''

Freiburger said cruelty was not investigated because ``we were reviewing other issues,'' such as possible violations of hunting, firearms and personnel rules.

He said another investigation was not likely because ``these pigs are hunted on a periodic basis and they're considered a nuisance species out there'' for their rooting and scavenging.