Hello , My name is Ashley Phillips I am from Appomattox VA. I realize this wasn’t on the agenda and but I feel like its just a dance around the issues at hand. I am all for the current laws we have for hunting and hunting with hounds. I feel like they should be enforced more instead of looking to change things with no transparency.

Im speaking against the trespass regulation that will make trespassing a class 3 misdemeanor. Meaning that if my hound crosses on land not warranted on more than one occasion I could be charged the same conviction of being drunk in public or possession of a schedule V narcotic…call me crazy but that sounds a little overboard for my dog to cross a property line.

The issue I have is that only 1076 dog complaints out of 6128 have to do with hound hunting. What are the other 5052 about and why aren’t they being given ultimatums. Of those 1076 only 327 did have a hunting related violation. Of those 327 only 188 are for dogs being on private land without permission. Also keep in mind each county or set up an ordicance - for instance  Appomattox is a fenced out county . If you don’t want animals on your property you have to fence it. We live in the united states and the commonwealth which is democracy. In a democracy the minority (those few that have an issue with hound hunting) should not rule the majority (those who hunt dogs those who support people hunting with dogs)

The mapping out a hunt idea for the landowner would never work because we never know where the hunt will end because we never know which way the game will go, will they go left to club land or will they take a hard right and go over to Mr Smiths farm? We do not know until last minute then by the time we get there the game could have turned and went back or maybe they did cross mr smiths property, but there is never any ILL INTENT to harm property or livestock of any kind and it would be hard to prove so without reasonable doubt.

I believe this has gotten blown out of proportion by people who just don’t like the way things are done and they want it their way, I will tell you right now im not living for the world I live for Jesus and standing up for the rights of what is true.  Id much rather have the youth today outdoors hunting and enjoying running their hounds than their face planted in a video game /on the streets/drinking drugs or worried about if they want to be a furry or not.

And lastly think about the revenue the DWR would lose if these regulations get put into place. Hound hunters would stop hunting all together, it wouldn’t be worth the hassle and intimidation of being threatened with a class 3 misdemeanor. So that means they wouldn’t purchase that $100 game license.  I encourage the DWR to take a current survey or something to see just how many people hunt with hounds and not just deer or bear because you have outside fox hunters, coon hunters, rabbit hunters -once you take hound hunting from 1 group you take it from them all.