Well, HOPEFULLY Virginia takes away something that you enjoy doing as well, the Same day they do away with Hound Hunting
Good luck with that....Bear Hunter Association has BIG pockets in the DGIF an VA Legislature, so won't happen I'd say. They were the reason for getting the separate Bear License which had been apart of the regular big game license to cut down on the number of bear hunters an thus save more bears for them.
A vast majority of hunters were against that license including me, but they went around that an got it passed! I have no desire to hunt or kill a bear, but if one happened along while I was deer hunting I might be tempted. I don't hunt public land any longer in bear territory and won't buy their bear license!
And that's how we lost it!!!! All of it!! If the uninformed public knew the work involved and the amount of game left in the tree to be ran again another day. They might have a different attitude. When bears and lions are in a tree you can identify male and female and size and choose not to take them if you wish. The average boot hunter normally shoots spontaneously and doesn't know what hes got till he rolls it over.
Wow.
First of all, I didn't personally insult anyone. I don't wish anything bad for any of you. This is the only website where I have seen a moderator do that.
Anyway, hound hunting in Virginia is becoming increasingly unpopular as the people you all consider "sportsmen" like us, mess it up for all of us. It's not the dogs, it's not the hunters that won't "stand beside" them, it's the folks that run the dogs, and the way they "hunt." I will never stand shoulder to shoulder with "sportsmen" who conduct themselves the way the a majority of the ones I have interacted with conduct themselves.
Anyway, before hunter's rights come landowner's rights, and therein lies the problem.
As far as being uninformed about the "work involved and the amount of game left in the tree to be ran again another day," I don't care. Until any of you all have lived where my family lives, you are the ones who are uninformed. From late September through January (including before and after any legal seasons) we deal with hounds crossing our 120 acre farm behind the deer/bear, etc. on their way to the river, which is about a mile away as the crow flies. Until your entire hunting day is ruined by a pack of dogs chasing a deer (usually a yearling doe) or bear through your property over and over again as it hits the river and bounces back to your property as it circles, you don't understand. Until you see that the "hunters" are parked off the road in your field drinking beer and standing in the ditch line with a gun, 50 yards from your aging parents' home, hoping a deer or bear pops out on them, you don't understand. Until you have a run in with one of these "hunters" who thinks he's been hunting that way for years, and will continue to do so, you don't understand. Until your aging father tells you over the phone while you are powerless to help him from across the other side of the world that a "hunter" threatened to beat his a$$ for asking him to get his truck off of his property, you don't understand. Until you figure out the "hunters" really have no interest in recovering their hounds until after dark just for a chance to shoot a deer or bear off of someone else's property until last light, you don't understand. Until you have someone shoot at your dog barking at the "hunters" with a .22, you don't understand. Until you wake up in the morning and find a malnourished, diseased hunting dog curled up on your porch or in your garage, feed him, show him some kindness, and then take them to the dog shelter by the pair, you don't understand. Until you have tried to feed two or three abandoned hounds who won't let anyone touch them, and watch them fade to death, you don't understand. Until you have apathetic "sheriff's deputies" and over extended conservation police officers either be unwilling or unable to address any of the aforementioned problems, you don't understand. And by the way, I have been in State or Federal law enforcement now for over 15 years, following my time in the Army, but I can't be at home all the time.
Your rights end where mine begin...if as a sportsman you don't believe that, you are wrong. I know many folks would also argue that what I have described above is the exception rather than the rule, which is a bald-faced lie. This is the rule in Southside Virginia, not just where my family lives. This is why I hope hound hunting ends in Virginia, and why it eventually will; it has nothing to do with the hounds, but it has everything to do with the people some of you suggest we should unite with. And by the way, a couple of years ago, legislation to fine "dog hunters" for running dogs across property that is posted $250 only failed to pass by one vote. So, for those of you in Virginia who think it's not coming at some point, you are sadly mistaken.
I thought this was an open forum to discuss "anything" but clearly it is only acceptable to do so if you agree with everyone else's point of view; it's like CNN or MSNBC. Thanks for the lesson gentlemen, I appreciate it.