Plan to modify hunt rules pleases few – News – inRich.com
October 25, 2008
By ANDY THOMPSON
SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT
The Board of Game and Inland Fisheries yesterday received the results of a 15-month study designed to identify and reduce conflicts between landowners and Virginia hunters who hunt with dogs.
And in the overflow crowd of more than 100 people — from raccoon and deer hunters to landowners to representatives of People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals — almost no one seemed satisfied with what they saw.
The most contentious proposal would alter Virginia’s “right-to retrieve” law, which allows hunters to enter private land to retrieve their dogs without the property owner’s permission. Virginia and Minnesota are the only states with such a statute.
Almost 30 speakers from various interest groups addressed the board at Game and Inland Fisheries headquarters on West Broad Street in Richmond. The vast majority were hound hunters voicing their dissatisfaction with any modification of the law. Many saw it as the beginning of a “slippery slope” toward taking away what they consider a birthright and a way of life. Click link below for Full Story!
Plan to modify hunt rules pleases few – News – inRich.com.
Virginia’s hunting-dog law finds itself in the cross hairs | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com
October 22, 2008
By Lee Tolliver
The Virginian-Pilot
© October 21, 2008
John Morse eased his pickup down a lumpy fire road that squeezed deep into a thicket of rural Chesapeake woods.
In a holding box in the truck bed, five of his hounds were going nuts as he stopped briefly to talk to a couple of camo-clad friends.
On this unseasonably warm fall morning, Morse and several members of Jim’s Hunt Club were about to take part in a Southern tradition that has been passed on to them by generations of hunters – using dogs to flush out and chase deer and other game.
It’s a heritage that faces growing criticism from property owners who say a Virginia law – the only one of its type in the country – is allowing unwanted hunters and dogs to intrude onto their lands. Hunters worry that people are trying to do away with their sport.
At a highly anticipated meeting on Thursday in Richmond, the results of a yearlong study on the conflict will be presented to the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries’ Board of Commissioners.
But Morse and his buddies didn’t have time to worry about any of that as they prepared for a morning hunt. Morse backed into a narrow cut in the tree line, got out of the cab and called on the radio. Full Story
Virginia’s hunting-dog law finds itself in the cross hairs | HamptonRoads.com | PilotOnline.com.
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