foxhound training preserve

Virginia state game regulators recommended new regulations for the operation of foxhound training preserves. The proposed new regulations satisfied pen owners and disappointed animal rights activists. After a period of public comment, a final vote will be held by the Board of Game and Inland Fisheries in June. The recommendations apply to nearly forty preserves in Virginia, and if passed would require improvements such as rounded fence corners, improved escape routes and structures, and acclimation periods for new foxes. The moratorium sought by animal rights groups was considered but not included in the recommendations. However the board did call for the elimination of cash prizes in foxhound competitions. Davy Hackett, president of the Virginia Foxhound Training Preserve Owners Association, said the recommendations were a “common sense effort” to improve the operation of preserves, according to an Associated Press story by Steve Szkotak. Posted March 22, 2013

The Virginia General Assembly brought opponents and proponents of fox penning together last February in an attempt to review the practice and work out a mutually acceptable set of rules. David Whitehurst of the Department of Game and Fisheries says that no compromise acceptable to each constituency was reached. The issue is expected to be revived in the 2013 assembly session, and game officials plan to meet at 9:00 a.m. Thursday, October 18 at the state game office, 4000 West Broad Street, Richmond. According to the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Laura Donahue, Virginia director of HSUS, accuses the game department of dragging their feet on the issue and plans to ask for a moratorium on new fox pens. In the same article, Madeline Abbitt, a lobbyist representing the Virginia Foxhound Training Preserve Association is quoted as saying, “What a fox enjoys is a good chase. That has been recorded from back in history.” In my opinion, a better argument might be to try to prove that survival of foxes in the fox pen exceeds the survival rate of foxes in the wild. Click for Rex Springston’s complete article. Posted October 17, 2012