THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, June 5, 1995 TAG: 9506050045
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY SCOTT HARPER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: Medium: 67 lines
Animal-rights groups are protesting the investigation of the shooting of two wild pigs at False Cape State Park by the director of the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation.
In letters and phone calls to Gov. George F. Allen, activists are asking that an animal-cruelty charge be considered for conservation chief H. Kirby Burch.
Burch, an avid hunter, was publicly reprimanded by Allen for pulling a caravan of state officials to a dinner meeting at the remote state park in Virginia Beach.
The state internal auditor, who conducted the investigation of the April 26 incident, cleared Burch of any legal violations. But he said last week that his office did not study a possible cruelty offense.
Groups including the Virginia Beach Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the Alliance for Animals in Virginia are upset that Burch shot the sow in the spine and left it alive on the side of a dirt road.
Burch did not kill the sow, according to investigators, because he had only one bullet left and decided to save it to protect the caravan against a possible charge from other pigs.
Two park staffers returned later and shot the sow with a service revolver borrowed from a park officer.
Both pigs became fare for a barbecue honoring Virginia National Guardsmen.
``Many of us are familiar with responsible hunting (and) Mr. Burch's failure to put the animal to death was inexcusable and unacceptable,'' SPCA Executive Director Sharon Q. Adams wrote in a May 19 letter to Allen.
Adams said the SPCA wanted to file a complaint with the Virginia Beach Animal Control Bureau but could not because no one from the group witnessed the shooting.
Animal cruelty is a Class 1 misdemeanor in Virginia.
State code defines an offender as ``any person who . . . willfully inflicts inhumane injury or pain not connected with bona fide scientific or medical experimentation or cruelly or unnecessarily beats, maims, mutilates or kills any animal whether belonging to himself or another.''
Joseph D. Freiburger, acting state internal auditor, said cruelty was not investigated because ``we were reviewing other issues,'' such as possible violations of hunting, firearms and personnel rules.
He said an investigation was not likely because ``these pigs are hunted on a periodic basis, and they're considered a nuisance species out there'' for their rooting and scavenging, which tears up marshland and sand dunes.
``It was appropriate to shoot them on state property,'' Freiburger said. ``It wouldn't indicate to me that cruelty would be an issue here.''
In the investigative report, Burch said he hunts responsibly, with due attention to humane treatment of animals.
Doreen Dykes, founder of Alliance for Animals in Virginia, is not convinced.
``I was under the impression that hunters didn't leave animals,'' said Dykes, a Virginia Beach resident who has called the governor's office in Richmond to complain about the incident.
``What he did would seem to be a very cruel thing, surely something that would warrant a look,'' Dykes said.
``It's incredible that he would say he only had one bullet left. Is that a joke?'' by CNB