Hunters Need to Comment Regarding Hunting with Hounds

VSSA posted about the issue of Hunting with Hounds earlier this year. Just like gun owners rights are being threatened by an exploding population that is encroaching on areas that have traditionally been rural, the hunting community is experiencing the same issue. Along with the increased population has come the associated fragmentation of land into smaller and smaller parcels. The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries (VDGIF), complaints submitted to VDGIF have increased with each passing year. Because of this, VDGIF established the Stakeholder Advisory Committee for the Hunting with Hounds in Virginia to make recommendations related to the future regulation of hunting with hounds.

The Committee recommendations are now available for public comment until September 12. The document containing all of the Committee’s recommendations can be viewed by clicking here and hard copies can be requested by calling (540) 231-0961. It is critical that the hunting community actively participate in this process in order to ensure a bright future for our hunting heritage. Radical anti-hunting groups like the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) actively advocate for an end to all hunting in America but have specifically targeted hunting with hounds over the last many years. HSUS sympathizers have been engaged in the process and hunters in the Commonwealth must counter them.

Comments can be submitted at public meetings scheduled through September 9, but comments made between now and September 12 will be considered. For a schedule of these meetings, click here. Written comments may be emailed to HoundHuntingSAC@vt.edu or sent to:
Hound-Hunting SAC, c/o Sarah Kozlowski, 111 Cheatham Hall, Department of Fisheries & Wildlife, Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, VA 24060-0321