An animal rights advocate, who said she was rescuing a stray, will be prosecuted on a felony theft charge for loading a deputy sheriff's hunting dog into a van and driving away.

A judge will allow the case to proceed against 25-year-old Andrea Florence Benoit. She says she was worried about the dog's welfare and only wanted to return it to its owner.

The Chesapeake woman picked up the fox hound while working in Southampton County for Norfolk's People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

But the dog was later linked to Southampton County Deputy Sheriff J.T. Cooke Junior, an animal control officer who had let out several of his hounds the night before to chase foxes, and one

failed to return.

PETA has been opposed to activities that harm animals, including wild land creatures like foxes.

The case will be heard in Circuit Court.