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Dogs scramble through underbrush during a hunt last year in Westmoreland County. Using dogs to hunt has become an issue in the state.
A crated hunting dog shares space in the back of a pickup truck with a freshly killed deer following a hunt in Stafford County in December. |
Caroline County veterinarian Jack Hammett has seen his fair share of hunting dogs.
Their health sort of runs the gamut, he said.
"I find that fox hunters care for their dogs very well," said Hammett, from Animal Clinic of Caroline P.C.
He has patched up hunting dogs struck by cars, with lacerations, fractures and eye injuries.
"A running dog will sometimes run a stick right through its skin and tear a hole in it," he said.
Virginia has a rich history of hunting with dogs. George Washington imported foxhounds into Virginia for hunting. In 1966, Virginia officials made the American Foxhound the state dog.
But recently, the way hunting dogs are used and treated has become a cause of concern. Rural hunters have clashed with new suburban residents. What was acceptable 20 years ago is becoming less acceptable to some now.
Just recently in Spotsylvania County, a judge ordered a veterinarian and the animal control department to return two hunting dogs to their Louisa owner after ruling there was no neglect. The veterinarian said the dogs were 20 pounds underweight with infections in their paws.
"These were walking bones," Animal Control Officer S.A. Duncan said in court.
In another case, two women face possible prison time after being charged earlier this year with stealing a deerhound in Richmond County. Annie L. Davis, 75, of Warsaw said she recognized the dog that Theresa Gordon of Callao found near her home last December as one she had rescued from an animal shelter a year earlier. Davis said she contacted the owner listed on the tag, but he told her he was in Maryland and could not immediately come to get the dog. Authorities later showed up at her door and said the dog had been reported stolen, she said.
The rhetoric has become so volatile that the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries created committees to address the issue. The two committees recommend ways to ensure the tradition of hunting with dogs remains intact, while respecting the rights of property owners and the concerns of animal lovers. The agency has been overwhelmed with angry comments from people who want controls on hunting with dogs and those who fear the study will kill the sport they love.
"While this is certainly not a new issue, the level and tone of these comments has become increasingly challenging, suggesting strongly that we examine more closely, in a proactive and positive fashion, the relationship between hound hunters and other citizens of the Commonwealth," says a message on the VDGIF Web site for the study Hunting with Hounds in Virginia--A Way Forward. "The time for ignoring this issue, as some have suggested, is long past."
Fido doesn't hunt
Lt. Col. Dennis J. Foster, a member of the advisory committee studying the hunting dog issue and executive director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association of North America, is a mounted foxhound hunter. He said there are too many misconceptions about hunting with dogs.
"If you are a city person and you've got your Fido and he is a little overweight, that's fine," he said. "But a hunting dog is always going to look a little skinnier. It is because they are athletes."
Foster said a few bad hunters create a stigma for all hunters who use dogs. He said it is common practice for hunters to keep their dogs in pens that provide enough room to roam. The animals should be well-fed and kept warm in the winter, and their pens should be cleaned daily.
Jerry Silver has deer hunted with hounds for 43 years on his 2,400 acres at Silver Ridge Farm in White Oak. He said he feeds his dogs one and a half times what a normal dog would eat.
"But those dogs still lose weight even with the best nutrition," he said. "A dog that is a little bit thin is like an athlete. You want them to be kind of lean and mean."
Silver's dogs have suffered a number of injuries. Paws get cut and sore from running in briars and over soybean plants.
One injured its leg when it was hit by a car while chasing a deer. A stick penetrated another's eye.
One dog, named Sonny Jurgensen, injured its heel after falling into a hole.
"We repaired that Achil-les', and it cost me $700, and that is typical of what a deer hunter will do for his dogs," Silver said.
Those are all normal hazards of dog hunting, he said.
"But those dogs just love to go, and, cut feet or not, they will go because they want to go," he said.
PROPERTY RIGHTS
Hunting dogs do stray from their owners. Finding the dog is the responsibility of the hunters, and it is one that must be taken seriously, Foster said.
"I am going to do everything in my power to find my hunting dog because he is worth money, and I love him," Foster said. "It is an emotional attachment."
That's not the case for
Hammett, the veterinarian, said he rarely sees stray foxhounds because they are worth money. But, each year, he does see a few stray dogs once used for deer hunting.
"At the end of the year, some of these dogs that were marginal dogs, they will just let them loose. At least it appears that way," he said.
Former Ruther Glen resident Devon Cole said that during hunting season, she would regularly hear gunshots near her home. Another sign that hunting season had begun was the arrival of stray dogs.
Some she found looked healthy, but a majority did not, she said. They appeared gaunt and had ticks and fleas, eye infections and parasites.
"Being an animal lover, I'd pick them up, get them out of the middle of the road, check their collars and call the owners," Cole said.
Not all owners were quick to pick up their animals, she said.
"One didn't show up for three days," she said. "When he did come to get the dog, he thought it was a male. It was a female."
She got fed up and moved to a subdivision in Bowling Green.
"I haven't seen a single hunting dog since we moved here," she said.
Lisa Fairman and her husband Jeff have rescued stray hunting dogs for 10 years in the Culpeper County area. They find the dogs homes by posting newspaper ads and through word of mouth.
Most of the dogs she finds near her home on Richards Ferry Road do not have identification.
"In the last month, I have had four hounds dropped that had just been running with no collars," she said. "Most of the time, when I get them, they are not in good shape."
She has picked up some dogs that were so dehydrated they needed fluids to get back on their feet, she said.
"It makes me really mad," Fairman said.
THE 'BAD APPLES'
Foster said hunters who ditch their dogs are not the norm. Most respect animal welfare, the laws and property rights.
"It's the slob hunter who doesn't keep looking for his dog," Foster said. "You have those 1 to 2 percent of hunters who don't seem to care."
Some hunters use tracking collars, but they are expensive. Not all hunters can afford the $200-$800 collars, Foster said.
Both dogs in the Spotsylvania County case last week were wearing tracking collars, according to the incident reports. Those dogs were involved in a hunting run about 17 hours before animal control officers picked them up in the Lake Anna area.
Silver, who uses dogs to hunt deer in the White Oak area, said hunting helps manage the deer population, providing benefits to farmers and motorists, he said.
Using dogs is a more effective way to hunt, he added. The dogs are trained to catch the scent of deer. Their barks and howls help hunters find the deer.
Last season, he estimates hunters without dogs killed three deer on his property. Hunters with dogs killed 27.
Most hunters respect the rights of property owners, Silver said.
"My view is there are a few bad apples messing it up for everybody," he said.
"I know it is a problem. I know there are people who abuse the hunting laws just like there are people who abuse any laws. But also know that if you do away with hunting with dogs in Virginia, the deer population would just explode."
Dan Telvock: 540/374-5438
Email: dtelvock@freelancestar.com
Local animal control departments do not keep statistics on breeds that would help determine how many hunting dogs are abandoned. But most say they don't think it's a major concern. Stafford County Chief Animal Control Officer Michael E. Null said the countywide leash law there helps control the stray dog population. "During hunting season, we definitely pick up a few, but they are usually collared and they have tags with the kennel. I am not going to call it a problem." Sgt. Kenneth E. Harris, chief animal control officer in Caroline County, said officers do pick up stray hunting dogs, but it's hardly an epidemic. He estimated as many as a dozen stray hunting dogs could be picked up during a hunting season--far fewer than the number of domestic stray dogs he gets at any given time. He said most of the time residents call about stray hunting dogs that appear on their property. "You can tell when hunting season is over with because we start getting more hunting dogs," he said. Spotsylvania County Animal Control Director William Tydings declined to discuss whether officers are called to pick up a lot of stray hunting dogs during hunting season. "I don't even want to speculate on that," he said. --Dan Telvock |
