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So In Virginia, there’s a debate roiling about "Hunting with Hounds" which is primarily limited to Fox Hunting. I’ve found the debate pretty interesting and close to home though...literally. We allow fox hunting by two hunts across our 200 acres in Northern VA. I’ve always found the hunters to be respectful and extremely diligent about property boundaries and respectful of property owners - both those who allow and don’t allow hunting across their land. I was reading this article:

http://www.dailypress.com/news/opinion/dp-ed_hounds_edit_0407apr07,0,6199745.story

...and the only thing I found surprising is the following:

"In recent years, more people have complained about hunters who trespass, road hunt or abuse a policy that allows hunters — fully armed — to retrieve a wayward hound from private property."

While I can understand the retrieval need - the fox hunters who come on our land aren’t actually "armed" - I believe the huntsman (the lead) carries a firearm in case a fox is caught and needs to be put down, but the objective of the hunt is not the kill...it’s the chase. It’s about riding hell bent through the words on a horse. Rarely do they actually kill the fox. It also bothers me that the folks that were part of the massive influx of development in my rural part of Northern VA complain about hunting in general – especially the fox hunting though. It’s like moving in next to an airport and complaining about the jetliner noise. When one moves to a rural area, they should expect to live with the environment. Dirt roads shouldn’t get paved, speed limits shouldn’t get increased, and you should be ready to accept a rural lifestyle…which includes hunting of all manners.

The only issue I have with all of this is the fact that fox hunters get to hunt on Sundays - the "regular" hunters don’t. I’d prefer to be able to hunt on Sunday’s rather than not letting the fox hunters hunt...

http://www.dgif.virginia.gov/hunting/hounds/