I am a Virginia Landowner, Hunter & Outdoorsman. I am not Anti-hunting or Anti Hound Hunting. I am for responsibility, accountability and seeking permission from the landowner to access, hunt, track or retrieve game on private property of individual landowners IAW landowner rights, the code of Virginia and DWR Hunting regulations. 

Hound hunters, drivers and hunt clubs utilizing hounds for hunting are responsible for accountability, traceability, safeguarding, welfare, safety and the actions of their hounds.  "Dogs cant' read signs" is an excuse and dogs can be contained by hunters, drivers and hunt club members in the areas they are permitted to hunt if the hunt clubs, hound hunters and guests are briefed and staged in a manner that intercepts hounds and turns them or stops them prior to the hound leaving a permitted area. 

Hound hunters, drivers and hunt clubs are also by regulation responsible to seek and get permission from landowners or the landowner representative. 

Hound Owners need to be properly identified and this ensures hounds are returned to their respective owners by Animal Control, Landowners, Regional Animal Shelter or passersby that pickup hounds. It also gives a pattern of behavior for the hound hunters and hounds.

Any Fees Associated with hound hunting changes are no different or otherwise burdensome than the current fees applied to hunting waterfowl, bear, deer, turkey, elk, WMA access, State forest Access, State and Federal Migratory Waterfowl Stamps, Additional Deer Tags etc.

DWR Proposal 6:

We have to be able to identify hounds, hound owners, affiliated hunt clubs and the areas the hounds and hound hunters are authorized and permitted to be on.  We have to be able to contact hound owners to return those hounds to their owners and/or notify the owners or clubs of an incident and hold them accountable. We have to identify and effectively track hound movement in order to determine hound trespass and hound migration off of their permitted areas. 

The hound hunters always use an excuse of the expenses involved in putting chips or collars or anything associated with tracking or containing the dogs and identifying the owners. The expense excuse is just that. Everything associated with hunting is an expense (ammo, fuel, maintenance, food, leases, equipment, trucks, dog boxes, licenses etc)

They always try to say it will impact younger hunters, GPS is unreliable etc yet Biologists and others use tracking systems in remote areas effectively. Satellites have been used to track and communicate in places that don't have modern cell towers and other services.

Air Tags, GPS trackers, Radio Transmitters and more all work and have been proven to work.

The hound hunters also oppose any requirement to mark, track and identify the dogs and owners of the dogs.

They even oppose the dog hunting permits and said it would deter future hound hunters and would be cost prohibitive. Once again an excuse and means to not be accountable or responsible.

With the variety of GPS devices at reasonable prices there is no excuse for inability to track, contain and retrieve dogs prior to them entering another property.

Radio Transmitters, GPS, Air Tags, Geo Fencing and many other available options are not that expensive or unreliable that it makes them an unreasonable requirement for dog hunters to make sure those hounds are properly identified, tracked and accounted for.

Satellites and Radio Tracker tech has improved over the years and work in some of the most hostile and remote locations. 

Towers and relay stations have pings and ways of communicating triangulated signals that within the areas of that tower. 

Satellites and Receivers have a means of storing/collecting data from devices that use Satellites and their relays. 

Grid coordinates (4, 6, 8 and 10 digit) coordinates all get you within a location of that hound and the driver, cell user, hunter, based on their signal 

Retransmission sites also track signals as well.

Walkie Talkies (Radios) such as Midland, Motorola etc work with a decent range and if signal boosters, long range antennas and retransmission sites can be extremely useful and reliable.

The DWR Conservation Police Officers need to have full access, training and working knowledge as well as available tools to read, fully, 100% access, interpret and use the technology including GPS collars, Air Tags, etc to not only observe hound movement but also track it and recover hound movement coordinates in the event of an incident with hounds and to properly and rapidly identify an owner and hunt club. 

The incorporation of this technology for hound hunting will not prohibit or cause a decline in younger hound hunters or any of the hound hunters.