If your hunting dog wanders onto private property, can you go there to retrieve her? That would seem to be the simplest solution, but some Virginia landowners disagree. Just what they want hunters to do is unclear. Maybe to stop hunting. Of course landownership cannot be absolute, all landlords have obligations to the community, and letting owners retrieve their dogs seems to be one of them.
The landowners that disagree fall into two categories.
Those whom were told by the game department that the game warden couldn’t do anything about trespassers. (which is false – as trespassing and poaching are serious crimes)
Those who want to use this exception to the law of trespass (a concept that is found in every state, and is the same theory as not arresting a person for trespassing when they trespassed to save a drowning child or to put out a fire in your home) as a way to ban hunting.
Animal rights groups have been among the most vociferous and active of the “people” against this exception to trespass, and using all sorts of bogus arguments that are not supported by the law.
Not because they are concerned over the welfare of the hunting dog, but because they know that making it impossible for a hunter to protect the life of his dog means most hunters will stop hunting. Others might just risk being arrested if it means their dog is safe and sound.
It’s pretty sad.