With the hunting season well underway, let me take a moment to caution everyone to be especially careful in the field. Ours is a safe sport when reasonable precautions are taken. Also be sensitive to the rights of non-hunters and other landowners. The hunting tradition is under fire and the most painful wound is frequently a self-inflicted one. Deer hunters will enjoy Bill Cochran's two recent columns on the changed nature of their sport.

An unknown, but significant number of hunting dogs are killed every year. Many of their bodies are never found. Two years ago last week two bear hounds were shot and killed near a wildlife management area (WMA) in Tazewell County. Game wardens, animal control officers and the sheriff's department were all too busy or pointed to each other as the responsible law enforcers. The dogs' owners persisted unassisted, found the mutilated dead dogs with their tracking collars removed and discarded. Ultimately, they personally gathered the necessary evidence to bring the killer to trial, where he was found guilty. The killer appealed and the case remains unresolved.

This abortive misdemeanor prosecution is in marked contrast to the high profile felony conviction of an Augusta County dog killer a few months later. The difference? Animal rightists, including the Humane Society of the U.S., pressed vigorously for the maximum penalty in a much weaker factual and legal case. Hunting dog owners must insist that law enforcement officers take our dog killings much more seriously. Contact the press, your board of supervisors and legislators to get action! I'm prepared to take names in an effort to see this situation changes. Please contact me if your dog is shot.

The Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (DGIF) has approved the use of "dog-proof" trapping boxes for 2006. Background here. The required precautions and actual language specifying the box opening dimensions and placement don't conform with that used in other states, creating a risk that beagles and smaller dogs will be killed or lose their legs in these newly approved larger, meat-baited traps. I communicated this concern to the DGIF Board and Director's office, without success or satisfaction. These boxes are not approved for use on WMAs or other public lands, perhaps insulating DGIF from direct legal consequences. Should anyone lose a dog in one of these devices next year, again please contact me. VHDOA is prepared to pursue further remedies.

The 2006 General Assembly will have two new senators, seventeen new delegates and some tough issues to deal with. There were three dog attack fatalities in Virginia this year, ensuring that the legislature will do "something, anything" to address the "problem." All three deaths were tragic and highly publicized, as you would expect. Two young children were killed by their family's bully dogs and an elderly Spotsylvania women, Mrs. Dorothy Sullivan and her dog, were attacked by an irresponsible owner's pit bulls in her own yard. Virginia's animal code covering dangerous dogs is a reasonable one, not the best in county, nor the worst. If the Spotsylvania authorities had been doing their jobs, Mrs. Sullivan's death could have been avoided. The pit bulls involved there were habitual neighborhood problems and had already killed at least one other dog. The other two cases are instances of parental neglect and the wrong dog in that setting, in my opinion. It will be difficult to craft reasoned, new dangerous dog legislation with emotions running so high. Unfortunately, this is the kind of an issue and circumstance that can used to further political ambitions.

The Virginia Voters for Animal Welfare (VVAW) is already in Richmond again, pursuing its mandatory spay-neuter, anti-breeder, humane education legislative agenda. I continue to do my best to see that Senator Santorum's S1139 PAWS bill doesn't become federal law. I and Virginia's dog owners could use a clone if this activity level persists.

Please forward and cross post freely.

Sincerely,
Bob Kane, President
Virginia Hunting Dog Owners' Association