CC supervisors to oppose negative dog study findings

Back in January, deer hunters packed the Charles City County Board of Supervisors meeting room to pressure the board to pass a resolution in support of using dogs to pursue their sport. Supervisors quickly complied.

But omitted from the resolution was a sentence saying supervisors would oppose any negative findings toward dog use in results of a study now underway statewide. During their June 24 meeting, board members unanimously agreed to add the passage.

County resident H.B. Fitzgerald sent letters to each board member and brought up the issue during last week’s meeting. The study, being conducted by Virginia Tech in conjunction with the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, could recommend measures such as limiting acreage for dog use and requiring permits.

The study, dubbed “Preserving Virginia’s Hunting Heritage,” has dog owners and users worried despite the apparent hunting friendly name.

The action grew out of complaints registered, primarily in localities where residential growth is exploding, about dogs roaming at large.

Fitzgerald told the board that out of 368 complaints statewide in 2005-07, only eight came from Charles City.

“What have we done to have brought this up?” he asked, adding that the matter has become political and complaint numbers could have been exaggerated.

“I think what they’re trying to do is take the grievous acts of a few people and put it on all the people, and I think that’s wrong,” he told supervisors.

Study results are expected sometime this fall. Then Game and Inland Fisheries officials plan to hold a series of hearings throughout the state to receive public comment.

What transpires from the study and hearings could become part of the state’s hunting laws.

For now, dog use for deer hunting is permitted in most localities east of the Blue Ridge Mountains.

Fitzgerald said he fears measures could be added restricting acreage, similar to Georgia where at least 1,000 contiguous acres are now needed for dog use.

“That would shut down most of the hunt clubs in Charles City,” Fitzgerald said, noting that some of the tracts local clubs use are 100 acres or smaller.

Supervisors, meanwhile, agreed to add the passage to the county’s resolution to oppose the Virginia Tech study results and any Game and Inland Fisheries studies or actions that would be detrimental to hunting with dogs.

In other matters at last week’s meeting, board members learned that the Route 5 bridge over the Chickahominy River connecting Charles City with James City County is to be closed to vehicles for two nights each month during July, August, and September.

Exact dates had not been listed as of last week.

Closures are to be from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. each of the six nights, but do not affect fire and emergency vehicles.

Reason for the closures is to accomplish work that will step up the bridge’s planned opening date from February 2009 to late December of this year, County Administrator Jack Miniclier said.

Plans now call for the old bridge to be dismantled over the winter so that work does not interfere with annual fish migrations upriver next spring.