Bill Cochran is a Roanoke Times outdoors columnist.

xtrails
@earthlink.net

Bill Cochran's Outdoors

Recent columns

• Hunters and anglers still in the conservation business
• Drum fishing on Virginia’s Coast comes in two colors
• Elk advocate finally gets his day
• Turkeys are plentiful, so why are hunting regulations so tight fisted?
• Column archive

Bill's Mailbag

• Remembering A. Willis Robertson
• Putting down a bear cub brings complaint
• Mail archive

Bill's Field Reports

• Eagles are up; black rail are down
• A. Willis Robertson great name for new DGIF headquarters
• Field reports archive

Resources

• Trout stocking schedule

The 2005 Virginia General Assembly is supposed to be a short session, but it has been anything but short on legislation that impacts outdoor sportsmen. In last week’s column, I covered a number of bills that hunters, anglers, boaters and gun and dog owners should keep their eye on. Here are more:

SUNDAY HUNTING

If there were a contest for the longest bill in the 2005 session, HB 2697 introduced by J.M. Scott, D-Merrifield, would be in the running. If you wade deep enough into it, beyond its politically correct efforts to remove certain religious references from the Virginia Code, you discover that among its nearly 40 proposed Code changes is one that would lift Virginia’s ban on Sunday hunting. That was caught up in the bill’s vigor to remove certain Sunday-only restrictions.

Although my request for information from Scott is yet to be answered, I have to think that the Sunday hunting reference will be stricken from the bill. No matter if you are for or against Sunday hunting, it is obvious that this should be a stand-alone issue, not part of a package designed to redefine churches, ministers and prayer in order to encompass all religions.

A more traditional Sunday hunting measure is SB 175 introduced by Sen. Kenneth Stolle, R-Virginia Beach. It would allow hunting on Sunday from noon to one-half hour after sunset. The afternoon-only approach is designed to ease opposition from people who believe Sunday hunting would compete with church attendance.

Track this and other bills via the search form on roanoke.com's Politics page.

HUNTING DOG OWNERSHIP

The animal-rights advocates are learning to use the General Assembly to get what they want, and often what they want isn’t in the best interest of hunters who own dogs and use them in their sporting activities. A number of legislators are being suckered into supporting the animal-rights people, and they are reaping the wrath of the Virginia Hunting Dog Owner’s Association (VHDOA).

One bill in the crosshairs of the VHDOA is HB 2927 introduced by Terry Kilgore, R-Gate City.

“This is the worse animal bill ever introduced in Virginia,’ said Bob Kane, a VHDOA executive.

The measure would require that every dog or cat obtained from a release agency must be fitted with a microchip and sterilized before transfer. Release agencies are defined as pounds, shelters, dealers, pet stores and for-profit breeders. The latter, said Kane, would include infrequent or small-scale breeders, even if they weren’t showing a profit.

Such breeders or dealers, who often propagate long-standing, hunting-dog bloodlines, would be required to buy a $150 business license. Failure to do so could result in a fine of up to $1,000.

This would be the nation’s first law requiring statewide pet sterilization, said Kane.

There is more. SB 952 calls for Virginia school systems to implement formal instruction on the “Humane treatment of animals.” Sen. H. Russell Potts, Jr., R-Winchester introduced it.

“The basic beliefs of the groups behind this bill’s introduction are that animals have legal rights as sentient beings, humans aren’t animal owners but guardians, that animals shouldn’t be killed for food, nor should the by hunted, used in medical research laboratories or kept in zoos,” said Kane.

The largest advocate of these positions, Kane said, is the Humane Society of the U.S., an anti-hunting group that has developed a multiple-school curricula that has been championed by the bill’s supporters.

“Is this what we intend for our public schools to become, special interest propaganda laboratories?” Kane asked.

Bills are moving through this short session of the General Assembly very rapidly, which is a challenge to people who want to address them, including Kane who has been hampered by recent eye operations.

MENHADEN UPDATE

The Coastal Conservation Association of Virginia has been urging the support of HB 1795, which wisely would move the management of menhaden from the General Assembly to the Marine Resources Commission (see last week’s column).

An industry-supported bill to counter this has been introduced by Allen Louderback, R-Luray, which is not exactly menhaden country. The bill would authorize the governor to manage the fishery by proclamation those times that the General Assembly isn’t in session, which is about 9 months of the year.

A simple question: Why not let scientists manage the fishery according to its biological needs?

STATE DUCK STAMP

For more than 60 years, waterfowl hunters have been required to buy a Federal Duck Stamp. Virginia has a State Duck Stamp, but its purchase is voluntary. Under HB 2887, a state stamp would be required of duck and goose hunters. It would be called the Virginia Migratory Waterfowl Conservation Stamp.

The fee for residents and nonresidents would be $9. After administrative costs, half the funds collected would go to nonprofit organizations to help improve waterfowl habitat and the other half would go to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries for waterfowl work. L. Scott Lingamfelter, R-Woodbridge, introduced the bill.