ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, April 17, 1996 TAG: 9604170022
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
DATELINE: DRAPER
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
Stung by suggestions that Solid Rock Kennels could be making a profit from selling its dogs, operator Terry Weaver says the animals are now being given away free.
Weaver, pastor of Emmanuel Independent Non-Denominational Christian Church, which runs the kennel, said the church board made the decision about the dogs Sunday.
"We cannot by law now be considered commercial or for-profit," Weaver said. "Everything included in this kennel now is free."
Pulaski County Administrator Joe Morgan earlier had notified Annette Jenkins, Weaver's fiancee and owner of the kennel and church property, that the kennel must have a site plan and meet other zoning requirements. Weaver said those requirements apply to commercial activities and not to those run by a church.
The kennel will request a donation of at least a 20-pound bag of any type of Purina dog food from people getting dogs, he said. "And that is the only thing that we ask." The kennel recently became a member of the Purina Pro Club and receives a rebate of free dog food based on the amount it buys or uses.
Purina also is helping with plans for a permanent kennel for 800 dogs and 700 cats that Weaver hopes to build on the Draper site by summer.
The kennel reopened this month after a self-imposed quarantine. "We've got 55 dogs on the property right now," Weaver said last week. "Over 75 dogs or puppies have been adopted or placed and did not have to be killed."
He said three more were placed over the weekend.
Now placements will be at no cost, and the dogs are guaranteed to have had all their shots, he said. The church board also decided that the kennel would no longer charge transportation costs to pick up animals being donated.
"We believe in a set of religious principles for this kennel," he said. "We are actually in service for the love of the animal. ... We are doing what God has called us to do."
The Charlottesville-based Rutherford Institute and a Blacksburg attorney have declined to represent the kennel in a religious discrimination suit after looking into it, but Weaver said another organization is studying the matter. He said earlier he would sue the county for religious discrimination because it is imposing zoning restrictions on the church kennel that are not being imposed on other kennels.
Weaver said several fund-raising initiatives made it possible to drop the $30 charge for dogs.
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