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The Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries has created committees to examine the issue of the treatment of hunting dogs. At least one member of the advisory committee says that there's a large number of misconceptions about hunting with dogs.

FREDERICKSBURG -- Caroline County veterinarian Jack Hammett has seen his fair share of hunting dogs.

Their health sort of runs the gamut, he said.

"I find that fox hunters care for their dogs very well," said Hammett, of the Animal Clinic of Caroline.

He has patched up hunting dogs struck by cars, with lacerations, fractures and eye injuries.

"A running dog will sometimes run a stick right through its skin and tear a hole in it," he said.

Virginia has a rich history of hunting with dogs. George Washington imported foxhounds into Virginia for hunting. In 1966, Virginia officials made the American Foxhound the state dog.

But recently, the way hunting dogs are used and treated has become a cause of concern. Rural hunters have clashed with new suburban residents. What was acceptable 20 years ago is becoming less acceptable to some now.

Just recently in Spotsylvania County, a judge ordered a veterinarian and the animal control department to return two hunting dogs to their Louisa owner after ruling there was no neglect. The veterinarian said the dogs were 20 pounds underweight with infections in their paws.

"These were walking bones," Animal Control Officer S.A. Duncan said in court.

In another case, two women face possible prison time after being charged earlier this year with stealing a deerhound in Richmond County. Annie L. Davis, 75, of Warsaw said she recognized the dog that Theresa Gordon of Callao found near her home last December as one she had rescued from an animal shelter a year earlier. Davis said she contacted the owner listed on the tag, but he told her he was in Maryland and could not immediately come to get the dog. Authorities later showed up at her door and said the dog had been reported stolen, she said.

The rhetoric has become so volatile that the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries created committees to address the issue. The two committees recommend ways to ensure the tradition of hunting with dogs remains intact, while respecting the rights of property owners and the concerns of animal lovers. The agency has been overwhelmed with angry comments from people who want controls on hunting with dogs and those who fear the study will kill the sport they love.

"While this is certainly not a new issue, the level and tone of these comments has become increasingly challenging, suggesting strongly that we examine more closely, in a proactive and positive fashion, the relationship between hound hunters and other citizens of the Commonwealth," says a message on the VDGIF Web site for the study "Hunting with Hounds in Virginia: A Way Forward." "The time for ignoring this issue, as some have suggested, is long past."

Lt. Col. Dennis Foster, a member of the advisory committee studying the hunting dog issue and executive director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association of North America, is a mounted foxhound hunter. He said there are too many misconceptions about hunting with dogs.

"If you are a city person and you've got your Fido and he is a little overweight, that's fine," he said. "But a hunting dog is always going to look a little skinnier. It is because they are athletes."

Foster said a few bad hunters create a stigma for all hunters who use dogs. He said it is common practice for hunters to keep their dogs in pens that provide enough room to roam. The animals should be well-fed and kept warm in the winter, and their pens should be cleaned daily.

Jerry Silver has hunted deer with hounds for 43 years on his 2,400 acres at Silver Ridge Farm in White Oak. He said he feeds his dogs one and a half times what a normal dog would eat.

"But those dogs still lose weight even with the best nutrition," he said. "A dog that is a little bit thin is like an athlete. You want them to be kind of lean and mean."

Silver's dogs have suffered a number of injuries. Paws get cut and sore from running in briars and over soybean plants.

One injured its leg when it was hit by a car while chasing a deer. A stick penetrated another's eye.

One dog, named Sonny Jurgensen, injured its heel after falling into a hole.

"We repaired that Achilles, and it cost me $700, and that is typical of what a deer hunter will do for his dogs," Silver said.

Those are all normal hazards of dog hunting, he said.

"But those dogs just love to go, and, cut feet or not, they will go because they want to go," he said.

Hunting dogs do stray from their owners. Finding the dog is the responsibility of the hunters, and it is one that must be taken seriously, Foster said.

"I am going to do everything in my power to find my hunting dog because he is worth money, and I love him," Foster said. "It is an emotional attachment."

That's not the case for all hunting dog owners, though.

Hammett, the veterinarian, said he rarely sees stray foxhounds because they are worth money. But, each year, he does see a few stray dogs once used for deer hunting.

"At the end of the year, some of these dogs that were marginal dogs, they will just let them loose. At least it appears that way," he said.