A newly formed group, Virginians for Hound Hunting Reform, sent out the below press release today. It follow on the heels of the DGIF’s hound project advisory committee recommendations released earlier this month.

For more on the issue of hound hunting in Virginia, click here. To read my recent column on the debate, click here.

PRESS RELEASE

Virginians concerned about the issues with hound hunting identified by the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF) Study: “Hunting With Hounds in Virginia – A Way Forward,” have banded together to create the organization Virginians for Hound Hunting Reform (VHHR).

Information recently released by the DGIF study indicates that hound trespass was the top issue identified by analysis of correspondence sent to DGIF and Virginia Tech who is facilitating the DGIF study. Conflict between a hunter’s right to retrieve hounds and a landowner’s right to control access to private property was the top issue identified by the DGIF Technical Committee and the study’s Stakeholder Advisory Committee (SAC). According to VHHR, neither of the top issues is addressed by the SAC draft proposed recommendations. While the study is not complete, the SAC will only meet one final time following the close of the public comment period on September 12, 2008.

Hound trespass is an issue because Virginia currently has no regulations governing the amount of land required to release hounds, no time of the year during which they may not be released and no penalty for the owner of the hounds that leave the property where they have permission to be.  The state of Georgia dealt with this issue by requiring significant parcel size for the release of hounds. Florida established meaningful penalties for those whose hounds leave the permitted property.  Several other southeastern states are considering adopting the Georgia approach. The SAC draft recommendations propose nothing that will address the issue of hound trespass.

At the heart of the conflict between hunter and landowner is Virginia’s “right to retrieve” law. Virginia is the only state that has a “right to retrieve” law which allows hound hunters to enter private posted property without the landowner’s permission under the guise of looking for their hounds. There is growing interest among private landowners to challenge the constitutionality of this law as a violation of property rights granted by the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution. The Fifth Amendment provides that an individual’s property may not be taken by a government without just compensation. Hunter’s retrieving their dogs and allowing the chase to continue without a landowner’s permission in effect place one’s property in the public domain without compensation.

The fact that the VDGIF study has not recommended strategies to address the top two issues means the problems may have to be dealt with legislatively and VHHR is preparing to tackle that if necessary.  There are over 7 million Virginians while there are only an estimated 135,000 hound hunters in the state.

To learn more about Virginians for Hound Hunting Reform visit their web site at http://www.vhhr.org.  Comments to the DGIF regarding the study may be mailed to Hound Hunting SAC c/o Sarah Kozlowski, 111 Cheatham Hall, Dept. of Fisheries and Wildlife, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24060-0321 or emailed to