It’s hard to imagine a more positive General Assembly 2004 session for Virginia’s hunting dog owners. In years past, local animal extremists passed numerous bills designed to take away or infringe upon our rights and privileges. They managed to do this without opposition and largely unnoticed. Seven such efforts were blocked during this year's session and for the first time ever, we managed to mitigate the adverse impact of one of the previous extremists' broader successes.

The General Assembly is a frantic place, even in a "long" session, as was the case this year. 1800 bills were passed by the House between January 16th and February 18th, 60% of those introduced. An average of ~180 bills per working day were considered by that chamber alone. No legislator, no matter how dedicated, can carefully consider every bill before its final floor vote. Committees do the lion’s share of this work and very seldom is a committee passed (reported) bill rejected by either chamber.

Much of our legislative success is owed to a group of thoughtful and supportive representatives sitting on the Agriculture, Appropriations and Rules Committees. You and I personally are indebted to many delegates, senators and their staffs for their patience and appreciation of the importance that we attach to our sport and its animals. The names of committee-supportive members of the Virginia Sportsmen’s Caucus. Additional key 2004 non-Caucus member support was provided by Sen. Tommy Norment (R), Sen. Mary Margaret Whipple (D), Del. Kirk Cox (R), Del. Phil Hamilton (R) and Del. Dave Nutter (D).

With so many bills introduced in each chamber each session, VHDOA needed to focus its Richmond lobbying on those bills considered the most dangerous to our members and also likely to become law without our opposition. This ER "triage" type approach was required because we haven’t the resources to cover 50-70 bills, some minor, some important, some inane and others incomprehensible. A group of club officers and individuals that financially support our work determined our lobbying target list. A few hunting bills were modestly lobbied, but nearly all of our effort was devoted to animal law bills, including the following:

SJ37 (Potts) Privately funded mandatory spay-neuter study with a preordained positive conclusion. OPPOSED – Passed by indefinitely (PBI) – Terrible idea with virtually no support; an easy kill.

HB554 (Hargrove & Griffith) Open season on killing dogs in rural areas. OPPOSED - Stricken - Totally outrageous bill with absolutely no support; an easy kill.

HB242 (Nutter) Dogs attacking pets. Defending owner felony prosecution protection. SUPPORTED – PASSED - Amended with general support. ASPCA opposed.

-------------------------Animal Extremist Supported Bills------------------------------

HB144 (Orrock) Animal control officer training administration
OPPOSED – Passed w/Sportsmen’s amendment over extremists’ objections

HB629 (O'Bannon) #1 misdemeanor animal cruelty penalty raised to #5 felony
OPPOSED - Continued to 2005

HB630 (O'Bannon) Owners that "reasonably should have known" their dog would bite someone and don’t prevent it are guilty of a #5 felony.
OPPOSED - – Continued to 2005

HB646 (Bell) Creates a new, independent animal cruelty code section with increased felony penalties, while dropping existing exemption provisions.
OPPOSED – Continued to 2005

HB1192 (James Scott, et al) Any dog frightening someone or off-leash on another’s property is deemed "potentially dangerous" - $500 fine, 3 years leashed at all times. OPPOSED – Continued to 2005

Concluding Comments

Our 2004 success was a combination of several factors: hard work, personal testimony during committee deliberations, the extremists’ over-reaching and the fact they weren’t initially expecting us. Virginia’s animal extremists are very closely associated with the Humane Society of the U.S. (HSUS), the Fund for Animals (FFA), ASPCA and PETA. Members of those groups routinely meet with local supporters and have made lobbying calls with them.

There’s a major concern with the extremist bills labeled Continued to 2005. Virginia operates on a biennial legislative calendar. The session after a House election is a "long," 60 day one. During that session a two year state budget must be adopted. Bills not passed in a long session may be continued to the succeeding year’s "short," 45 day session. The easiest way to remember this is that long General Assembly sessions occur in even numbered years, elections and short sessions in odd numbered ones.

It's fully expect that several of the particularly dangerous continued bills and more, newly introduced ones will need to be permanently defeated next year. Some of these 2004 bills cleared at least one committee and extremists will have a running start at making them Virginia law. VHDOA was the only dog owner advocate, amateur or professional, lobbying all of the above bills. The local animal extremist groups are dedicated, very well organized and directed by experienced lobbyists, many of whom are paid state or county employees. They’ll be better prepared in 2005. Pet and hunting dog groups have none of those characteristics. Think about that between now and January 1, 2005.