My name is Joshua Williams and I oppose the proposal “Dog Trespass” . I am 20 years old and the only hunting I enjoy is dog hunting for deer. I do not participate in still hunting as it is not exciting enough for me and friends. If you pass this proposal into law you will basically be ending deer hunting with dogs. My hunt club spends $45,000 a year in land leases but even with all that land we cannot keep the dogs off of private property. So basically every time we turn loose our dogs we are subject to prosecution. It will only be a matter of time before this becomes too much of a burden and the sport ceases to exist. This proposal will only embolden the critics of dog hunting and hunting in general and they will go out of their way to pursue any dog at any time to keep us from hunting. This proposal will turn neighbor against neighbor and hunt club against hunt club. If you think 6000 complaints was bad last year you will have 60,000 when you pass this legislation. The understaffed conservation officers will spend all their time responding to dog complaints instead of wildlife violations. Do not expect the county animal control personnel to respond to these calls as most rural counties are in favor of dog hunting and their elected board of supervisors will quickly stop that waste of tax payer money as they can’t tell a deer dog from a fox dog. Hunter numbers are down and deer numbers are up and the board wants to pass this proposal to satisfy a small minority of trophy hunters, this doesn’t make any sense. Reasonable efforts sound good on the surface but only to those who don’t know any better, the minute you make a dog capable of trespassing  you have made a criminal out of an otherwise lawful hunter.

Joshua Williams

5235 Community House Rd.

Goochland Va. 23063