By CATHY DYSON
King George supervisors are dealing with issues typical of life in rural areas: hunting dogs and people with guns.
The Board of Supervisors decided Tuesday to gather more information on problems caused by dogs traipsing onto others’ property. The hounds are followed by their owners, even onto land that’s posted “No Hunting,” said County Attorney Matt Britton.
Board members decided to ask the county’s game warden for his input at their next meeting, Feb. 21.
“I’d like to see if there’s something we can do on the enforcement side,” said Supervisor Dale Sisson Jr.
But supervisors didn’t want to pursue an ordinance that would restrict people from shooting on their own land.
Supervisor John LoBuglio pushed for some kind of action because of problems he said he faces with his neighbors.
At least 10 times, he said, he has called the Sheriff’s Department to report rampant and unsafe target shooting in the Hugger Tract subdivision near Caledon Natural Area.
Last June, the supervisor said, a bullet strayed onto his land and dented his brand-new Toyota Camry.
“These people aren’t hunters, they’re just shooters, and they’re always shooting,” LoBuglio said.
The county has laws against unauthorized shooting into dwellings and reckless firing, but LoBuglio wanted some other ordinance that might prevent his neighbors from shooting his way.
“Creating another ordinance is not going to help you there,” Sisson said. “A new ordinance is not going to keep people from being stupid.”
Sisson also brought up the issue of hunting dogs, saying he has heard several reports from residents.
The problem is not with hunters who use dogs properly or with an occasional hound straying onto someone else’s land, Britton said.
The “No. 1 complaint,” as Britton called it, is when people purposely turn their dogs loose on land that’s not theirs. They run the dogs through the property, forcing deer to run to another parcel where hunters have permission to hunt—and are waiting to shoot them.
When confronted, the hunters shrug and say, “Our dogs can’t read,” Britton said. They maintain they were following the law, which allows them to retrieve their dogs from another person’s land as long as they’ve dropped their weapons.
“It’s a powerful law,” Britton admitted. “You can’t go onto someone else’s land to look for your child, but you can for your dog.”
King George resident Justin Reid, who belongs to several hunt clubs, said in a telephone interview Wednesday that he does see a problem “with a few rogue individuals.”
People who intentionally run dogs through property they don’t have permission to be on is one of his biggest pet peeves. He believes it doesn’t happen that often, but said that it does put all hunters in a bad light.
“That’s what the public sees,” Reid said.
Decades ago, “hounds were the way to hunt large tracts of land,” Reid said. The dogs would flush out the deer for hunters, who couldn’t possibly cover the expanse of land.
But large, open tracts don’t exist anymore, and people can’t hunt with dogs the way they did in the past, he said.
That’s why some hunters are using other breeds, such as pointers and other bird dogs. They chase prey a couple hundred yards and return to their starting point—unlike hounds, which cover woods and fields searching for their quarry.
Cathy Dyson: 540/374-5425
cdyson@freelancestar.com
‘RIGHT AT HOME’
Tim Ware, the new executive director of the George Washington Regional Commission, came to Tuesday’s King George Board of Supervisors meeting to introduce himself. Before it was his turn to speak, he sat through two hours of discussion about the illegal use of hunting dogs, target shooting gone wild and a chili cook-off at church.
Ware told the supervisors he’s from eastern North Carolina, where people face the same issues. “I feel right at home, hearing about church suppers, guns and hunting dogs.”
