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

DATE: WEDNESDAY, December 1, 1993                   TAG: 9312010275
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ADRIENNE PETTY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium


PUBLIC FUNDS EXOTIC HUNTS

Animal-rights advocates are furious that the owners of Boar-Walla Game Preserve in Alleghany County received a $10,000 government loan to start their business, which opens today.

"Here we are, a nonprofit agency to protect animals, and they're able to get money to kill them," said Tammy Javier, a humane investigator for the Roanoke Valley Society for the Preservation of Animals.

Boar-Walla, a 170-acre exotic-game preserve where hunters will have the opportunity to take aim at buffalo, goats and wild sheep, has been blasted by animal-rights advocates and hunters as being an inhumane and unchallenging slaughterhouse for domestic animals.

The interest-free loan was extended to Boar-Walla by an Alleghany County committee that oversees a revolving-loan fund established with federal money, according to Tammy Lawson, assistant administrator for Alleghany County.

The U.S. Forest Service gave the county a $22,000 grant as part of the Rural Revitalization for National Forest-Dependent Rural Communities project. The money is aimed at helping spur the economies of rural communities.

The interest-free loan came from a $22,000 grant to Alleghany County from the U.S. Forest Service.

Rural communities that rely on forest resources for 15 percent of their economic activity and are within 100 miles of a national forest can qualify for grants to fund economic diversification programs, said Steve Parsons, who coordinates the program for the George Washington National Forest. About half of Alleghany County's 948 square miles are national forest land.

"The Forest Service program is designed to help rural people help themselves," said Parsons, who is based in Harrisonburg.

Boar-Walla must pay back the loan within a year.

Ken Martin, one of the owners of the preserve, would not say how much he charges hunters, but he said that they have to pay only if they strike an animal. The preserve also will generate income from lodging it offers for up to six hunters.

Protesters who staged a rally outside the preserve Sunday plan to return today to protest the opening of the preserve, which, they say is an unethical use of taxpayers' money.

Advocates also said that Boar-Walla and the county were not forthright in offering information about the loan.

"When we tried to find out about this, we encountered extreme hostility," said Waine Tomlinson, president of the Roanoke-based League for Animal Protection.

But Tammy Lawson, assistant administrator for Alleghany County, denied that Boar-Walla and the committee that approved the loan were concealing information from the public.

"The people at Boar-Walla have made it public," she said. "They're not trying to hide anything, as far as I'm aware."

The owners of Boar-Walla, Martin and Betty Hawkins, were out of town Tuesday and could not be reached for comment.

In addition to the revolving-loan fund, the county has received Forest Service grants for numerous projects, including a study that resulted in the building of a YMCA and day-care center, installation of a radio transmitter at a rest stop on Interstate 64 to give information about sightseeing opportunities in the county, and a minority youth employment program.

Parsons said that the Forest Service leaves the nature of the projects to the discretion of the committee that applies for the grants.

"The basic position we take is that if they're not doing something illegal, then it's up to the county how they're using the funds," Parsons said.



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