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

DATE: THURSDAY, July 20, 1995                   TAG: 9507200047
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: SHANNON D. HARRINGTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

OWNER SUMMONED; WILL PIGGY CHARLOTTE BE CALLED TO TESTIFY?

Now, it looks as if Emma Saunders' three little piggies will go to court.

Wednesday morning, one day after council denied a request to allow Vietnamese potbellied pigs in Vinton, Saunders' husband, Gerald, was issued a summons to appear in General District Court.

The Saunderses are being charged with keeping livestock within town limits and with exceeding the town's limit of two pets per household.

Town Manager Clay Goodman said that the case would be placed on the docket of Vinton's General District Court, which is held Thursdays with a Roanoke County judge presiding.

Goodman said the pigs will be allowed to stay at the Saunderses' home until a judge makes a decision.

As of Wednesday afternoon, the Saunderses had not talked with their attorney about the case.

"I knew a summons was coming, but I did not know it was coming this quick," Gerald Saunders said.

He said the family would keep the pigs indoors until the case is over, allowing them to go outside to potty.

"I'm going to fix the fence to where they aren't going to get out," Emma Saunders added.

She also said she would give her two Chihuahuas to her cousin in Roanoke, who had kept Wilbur, Arnold and Charlotte for almost three weeks before Tuesday's Town Council meeting.

The Saunderses brought their pigs home Tuesday afternoon, then took Charlotte to the council meeting.

During the meeting, three other Roanoke Valley potbellied-pig owners testified that their pigs are not livestock.

"You couldn't even sell them for food if you wanted to," said Annette LaFleche of Roanoke, owner of Hiney.

Mark Smoot, a former Montgomery County animal control officer who now lives in Vinton, also testified to the fact, saying that there is a distinct difference between a potbellied pig and one bred as livestock.

Not all who spoke were in support of the pigs, however.

William and Rose Marie English, who live on the same street as the Saunderses, and three other Vinton residents who live nearby complained that the pigs were running loose in the neighborhood.

"I think the whole issue is they were not responsible pet owners," Rose Marie English said.

Emma Saunders admitted that one of the pigs, Wilbur, got loose before, but she thought others in the neighborhood didn't have a reason to complain.

"Why would people on [other streets] complain about the pigs when [the pigs] don't come over there?'' Saunders asked.