Hunters; required to identify himself when retrieving hunting dogs from landowner's property. (HB2531)

This bill is a step in the right direction but does not go nearly far enough. There is a reason why deer dogs are on posted private property; there is no minimum required acreage for hunters to release their dogs. The can literally release 40 hounds on an acre of land and allow them to run over hundreds or thousands of acres where neither the hounds nor the hunters are welcomed. In fact they do just that, 12 months out of the year. This problem is compounded by the fact that what was once rural Virginia is now suburbanized Virginia and the number of large, contiguous tracts of land of several 1000 acres or more where hound hunters can release their dogs with low probability of the hounds invading the land of others is close to nil. A number of Southern states that allow hounds to chase deer have tackled this problem by requiring those hunters who choose to hunt deer with dogs to produce documentation to the game commission prior to the hunting season that they do in fact have large contiguous tracts of land on which they will be releasing their hounds. It is about time that we do the same thing in Virginia or better yet stop the practice of hound hunting all together.