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

DATE: SATURDAY, December 10, 1994                   TAG: 9412120058
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: B2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: DANVILLE                                 LENGTH: Short

DOOMED DOG STIRS EMOTIONS FROM AFAR

People are lighting up the phone lines in hopes of adopting a Labrador retriever sentenced to death for chasing mail carriers.

Callers from as far away as New York and Canada have expressed interest in adopting Smokey, the dog General District Judge Ryland Dodson sentenced to die. Others just wanted to express their anger at Dodson's decision.

``I haven't heard from Queen Elizabeth or President Clinton today, but they're about the only ones,'' said Paulette Dean, director of the Danville Humane Society, which has custody of the 4-year-old dog.

Several mail carriers testifed that the dog had lunged at them or bitten their mailbags. None of the carriers was bitten.

Smokey's owner, Craig S. Jackson, has appealed Dodson's ruling to Circuit Court. A hearing there has not been scheduled.

by CNB