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Bill Cochran

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BILL: I want to thank you for exposing HUSH, Hunters United for Sunday Hunting, to your readership. The response has been phenomenal. The pledges of support are greater than I had envisioned. Your column is obviously read by many. Many of your readers have expressed a strong support for HUSH, and a change in current Sunday hunting regulations. There is a bit of confusion though. I hope that you will find it appropriate to publish this writing.

The goal of HUSH is to unite all hunters in an effort to increase all hunting types, styles and opportunities for everyone. I knew before I announced HUSH that not every hunter would be supportive. I have received some e-mails that express concern that HUSH will segregate hunters, especially dog hunters. This couldn't be further from the truth. I, in fact, recently e-mailed the Virginia Hunting Dog Alliance asking them to consider uniting with HUSH. I have no interest in causing any compromise of access to hunting resources to any hunting type, style, interest group or individual. HUSH is here to benefit all hunters through additional hunting opportunities without anyone having to sacrifice what they already have.

Contrary to popular believe, Sunday hunting in Virginia is actually legal. It is legal under very restrictive situations, and only legal to very few in comparison to the general hunting population. Virginia Code 29.1-521 provides legal Sunday hunting provisions for raccoon hunters and bird hunting on licensed shooting preserves. To my knowledge it is also lawful to chase certain game/fur bearing animals with dogs on Sunday. I don't want any of this to change.

HUSH bases its opinion that Virginia's current ban on Sunday hunting is discriminatory on the fact that only certain types/styles of hunting are legal on Sunday. Virginia further discriminates against hunters in general based on the fact that hunting is the only legal activity that is banned on Sunday. In fact, hunting is the only legal activity that is banned any day by Virginia law.

Whether you support Sunday hunting or oppose it, I can't imagine that you wouldn't be supportive of equal rights. HUSH wants all citizen's of Virginia to be granted what is rightfully and legally theirs. That is a choice to hunt on any day that they'd like to. We will, with the support of others, make every effort to change Virginia law so that hunters are no longer mistreated.

BILL: This message is to indicate that the nine-year old Virginia Hunting Dog Owners’ Association is not in any way affiliated with the new group calling itself the Virginia Hunting Dog Alliance. Our mission is to represent the interests of all ethical and law-abiding sporting, hound and mixed breed dog owners. We’ve worked hard at that in Richmond and Washington since early 2000. Internet postings by Virginia Hunting Dog Alliance board member Derick Ratcliffe (AKA Hokieman) in no way represent my views or those of VHDOA.

I encourage sportsmen to visit VHDOA’s General Assembly bill status page. Further, they can personally help protect our sport and dogs by signing up for VHDOA’s limited use alert list. This is especially important, because legislation moves very quickly in Richmond. Reading blogs or board reports don’t give you enough time to react.

For further background about me personally, see the interview.

BILL: Thanks for plugging our newsletter and letting your readers know about our Web site, easternpumaresearch.com. Since our appearance on the History Channel, Dec. 12, we have been swamped with 765 responses on mountain lion sightings from witnesses of various backgrounds. About 150 are from wildlife field officers, law enforcement, foresters and ecologists.

I’ve been reviewing our enormous files on cougars and black panthers dating back to the late 1800s. For an animal said not to exist in the East, then what are the hundreds of trained observers seeing?

Pictures of cougars are turning up fairly frequently from eyewitnesses across the East. Trail cameras are beginning to catch cougars on hunting safaris. About a dozen pictures have been sent to us. The reason they are not put on the Internet is due to hackers turning them into fodder. All too many photos from one state are turning up days, months and years later as confirmed reports in other states. We discouraged putting confirmed pictures on our Web site, after one photograph taken in Wisconsin was reissued as a sighting in Pennsylvania.

I’d certainly like to hear from more people in Virginia who have seen or filmed a cougar or black panther. There have been multiple reports from Highland and Bath counties, but we need some good tracks to film or make casts.

Keep up the good work you are doing in getting the news out on wildlife issues.