St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 20

20A Region ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH Feb. 11,1987 Kennel Owner Links Fire To Dog Killings Site Of Animal Sanctuary II I Bonne Terra ji LACE HAIRDOWS: Deslogs; SPRING'S ACCENT ft Rat River SCALE ON ROMANCE FOR VALENTINE GIFT-GIVING MISSOURI Post-Dispatch Map By Tony Lazorko Flirty lace bows signal springes coming with an unmistakeable sense of whimsy. Enter hair dressing at its best, adorning her ultra-feminine attitude for the new season. Shown, just one from our large collection by A.

Brad. The triple lace hair bow in white or ecru, $18. Fashion Accessories. By Roy Malone Of the Pott-Dispatch Staff A fire that killed 59 dogs at a kennel near Bonne Terre, was probably set by the same person who shot four dogs there two months ago, the owner of the kennel said Tuesday. The owner, Mabel Wood, operates Martha's Animal Sanctuary.

She said the fire that destroyed a barn early Monday had to be the work of an arsonist. "There's no other way it could have started. We had just built an addition, out of green lumber, and that part of the barn was already destroyed when we noticed the fire," Wood said. Wood lives on farm property where the kennel was situated. It is on a dead-end road five miles east of Bonne Terre, which is 60 miles south of St.

Louis. On Dec. 11, she returned home to find that four dogs had been shot. Two of them survived. "I don't have the faintest idea who is doing this," she said.

"I have a mixture of fear and anger. It must be someone who wants to inflict pain on animals." The St. Francois County Sheriff's Department said it planned to investigate the fire. But its arson investigator has been busy with other duties, said Lt. George Cobb.

He said the investigator would probably go to Wood's property today. 'I'm a mile from my nearest neighbor. They said they heard nothing," Wood said. She said that a caretaker had checked the kennel at 12:15 a.m. Monday and all was quiet.

"By 1 a.m. it was a roaring infer no," she said. She and the caretaker managed to save three dogs that were in outside runs. But she burned her hands when she opened one door of the kennel, which is a converted horse barn. "This dog, all on fire, bolted out.

It died at my feet. It was absolutely horrible," she said. Clarence "Butch" Keen, chief of the Bonne Terre Volunteer Fire Department, said firefighters had arrived about 15 minutes after the fire began, but the whole barn was already on fire. Firemen opened some gates "but the dogs were in a position they couldn't get out. They were already dead from the heat." He said the barn had burned to the ground and firemen were unable to determine how it started.

Wood, 65, used to operate a kennel in High Ridge, in Jefferson County. That kennel for dogs and cats was established by Martha Kaltwasser of St. Louis, who had put up $70,000 for its construction. Veterinarian bills sometimes ran as high as $3,000 a month, Wood said. After Kaltwasser died in 1985, Wood decided to move the animals to a more remote and less expensive setting near Bonne Terre.

She operates through a non-profit corporation and relies on donations to care for stray animals, many of them old and sick. "I'm heartbroken. I was so happy to give these animals a nice place. I work 20 hours a day and few people even know I'm here," she said. "I hope the publicity will bring out information about who did this.

I've Kll I i had no complaints. It can't be a personal vendetta." Cobb said "we had no complaints by her or about her. I didn't even know the place existed." He said the county required no license for such an operation. Last year some people from Elvins, complained after their dogs had been picked up by police and were later found shot. The town's dog pound had been shut down for repairs.

Cobb said police had denied shooting the dogs. He doubted whether a connection existed between those incidents and the fire at the kennel. But Wood, at a loss to understand who would want to kill dogs, wonders if a link might exist, since Elvins is only three miles from her place. Wood has about a dozen dogs left, which were being kept in another shed and in her house. She plans to continue caring for animals but says she doubts whether she will rebuild the barn.

FAMOUS 'BARR SHE CAN'T RESIST A SOFT BLOUSE, TOUCHED WITH PURE LACE fi i 4 Imagine a blouse as feminine as she is. We've picked three of our favorites, framed at the collar with the romance of lace. Featured and inset top to bottom: IMPRESSIONS embroidered lace collar -blouse in white polycotton, sizes 6-16, $30 NILANI soft lace collar blouse in ivory polyester georgette, sizes 4-14, $54. YOU BABES button back blouse with tucks and Idee in white polycotton, S-M-L, $26. Young Attitudes, Traditional Sportswear, Better Sportswear at Downtown, West County, South County, Northland, Crestwood, Southtown and St.

Clair. ir 7 7 i 7 A A I 1 FAMOUS ARR.