ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Tuesday, October 8, 1996               TAG: 9610080093
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: A-1  EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CHRISTINA NUCKOLS STAFF WRITER
NOTE: Below 

VINTON FACED WITH MUDDY ISSUE

EMMA SAUNDERS plans to petition town council to allow her three pigs to come home.

If Arnold, Wilbur and Charlotte have apples in their mouths right now, you can bet they're chewing.

The three Vietnamese potbellied pigs whose fate has been in question since Vinton officials banished them from the town in August are alive and well, owner Emma Saunders said.

Saunders said her three famous pets are together, but she wouldn't disclose their location. She did say, however, that she still wants them back at her West Cleveland Avenue home.

Saunders' family and a few friends are organizing a petition drive in an effort to persuade Vinton officials to reconsider whether potbellied pigs should be banned from the town. So far they've collected 135 signatures. Their goal is to bring petitions with at least 600 names to Town Council.

There are about 3,500 registered voters in Vinton. Town Manager Clayton Goodman said there is no particular number of signatures required to get the Town Council to consider a change in its ordinances.

Sherry Owens, a Bedford County woman who had offered to care for the pigs this summer when the Saunderses lost a court battle to keep their pets, is helping the family collect signatures by going door-to-door on weekends.

"Most people are glad that we're doing this," Owens said. "They tell us to keep fighting and don't give up. We have some who don't want to get involved."

Although Owens is not a resident of Vinton, she has four potbellied pigs of her own, including an 8-week-old piglet she named Emma after the Vinton woman. Owens said she's volunteering because she loves animals. "I've seen Emma's pigs," Owens said. "She has trained her pigs so well, and they're such good pets, and I don't feel it's fair that people can have really vicious dogs that will jump up and bite you and she can't have these pigs. They are not vicious animals and they don't stink."

Saunders said she has met individually with all five members of the Town Council to discuss the subject.

"They said they weren't going to promise me nothing, but they were real nice fellows," she said. "Very nice people to talk to. They were gentlemen."

LENGTH: Medium:   51 lines
ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO:  File 1995. Arnold, Wilbur and Charlotte are Emma 
          Saunders' pet potbellied pigs. color.