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

DATE: FRIDAY, June 9, 1995                   TAG: 9506090075
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SANDRA BROWN KELLY
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

PETTING PRAIRIE DOGS AT MILL MOUNTAIN ZOO WASN'T SO NEAT AFTER ALL

Somewhere in Bedford County, there's a 9-year-old boy who wishes he had never leaned into the prairie dog pen at Mill Mountain Zoo the other day.

For one thing, the account of what happened got distorted as it made its way through zoo and Health Department workers and came out that a mother had put her child in the prairie dog pen so she could get a photograph.

Not true, the boy's father said Thursday when he called to clear up the misinformation.

"My son takes full responsibility for what happened," the father said.

According to his dad, the youngster decided it would be neat to pet one of the dogs, but the rodent thought otherwise and nipped a gash in the child's finger.

Just punishment or not, the boy is going to take a series of anti-rabies shots, even though state Health Department workers say there is little risk of a prairie dog having rabies.

The father also said he and his wife had some concern that the animal pen is too accessible to youngsters, especially those too young to read. A sign at the site warns that prairie dogs will bite.

A "pretty high" brick wall topped by a metal lip surrounds the pen, said Beth Poff, director of the Roanoke zoo. Poff was not on duty when the incident happened and said she had not yet spoken with the worker who reported it.

"We've never had a rabies problem at the zoo," she said, "but we're keeping an eye on the prairie dogs as a precaution."

by CNB