Virginia bill would make removing electronic dog collar a crime

[TribalRats]

Virginia bill would make removing electronic dog collar a crime
By DENA POTTER
February 18, 2007
RICHMOND, Va. -- Sheriff's deputy James Cooke will tell you there are some dogs that just can't be replaced.

He should know. Cooke says he's spent about $15,000 on the 19 fox hounds he owns in Southampton County and the electronic collars he uses to track them while hunting. He's also one of the many hunters whose dogs' collars have been removed while in the woods either by pranksters or those who don't think dogs should be used to hunt.

Virginia lawmakers are trying to put some teeth in the state's larceny laws by making it a crime to remove an electronic dog collar and requiring those found guilty to pay restitution if the dog is lost or killed.

"I don't think you can set a price," Cooke said of his hounds. "I've got some money can't buy."

Cooke was one of the lucky ones. Acting on a tip, he pulled over a van belonging to Norfolk-based People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals and found his hound inside. Two PETA employees were charged with larceny for stealing the dog and the collar. They are due in court next month.

Hunting enthusiasts say the law needs changed to make it easier to prosecute those who remove dog collars. The problem has been that usually the collars are not stolen but simply removed and thrown aside, making it difficult to prosecute as larceny, said Bob Kane, a lobbyist for the Virginia Hunting Dog Owners' Association.

Those found guilty of removing a collar would face up to a year in jail and a $2,500 fine.

One bill, introduced in the House by Del. Ed T. Scott, R-Madison, would have made it a felony if the dog was killed or lost after the collar was removed. A competing Senate version required restitution, and a Senate committee stripped the felony language out of Scott's proposal.

The Senate unanimously passed Scott's bill on Feb. 14; the House of Delegates has yet to act on the Senate version.

Scott said he would keep working to get the felony provision restored. It makes sense, he said, because Virginia law already allows someone to be charged with a felony for stealing or killing a dog or livestock.

"If the collar is lost, it's a financial loss to the owner, but if the dog is lost or killed it's a financial loss, but obviously it could be an emotional loss as well," Scott said.

Kane said it is important to keep the felony provision in the bill as a deterrent to those who would remove the collars. He documented nearly 60 cases that occurred over four years from Suffolk in southeastern Virginia to Tazewell County in the southwest mountains where a dog's collar was removed. In 37 of those cases, the dogs never were found or were killed.

While collars cost about $150 each and the receivers to pick up the tracking signal run at least $900, the dogs themselves can cost thousands, Kane said, adding that he once had $20,000 in one champion dog.

"Had someone stolen that dog, there would have been a felony involved somewhere," Kane said.

Kane said in the rare instance someone is arrested for removing a collar, the cases are extremely difficult to prosecute because there often isn't much evidence and the crimes occur in the woods far from witnesses.

North Carolina passed a similar law in 2005, and West Virginia lawmakers have toyed with the idea for several years and are considering it again this year.

In North Carolina, violators face a $200 fine the first time and up to a $1,000 fine for subsequent convictions. A handful of people are prosecuted each year, said Major Keith Templeton, an enforcement officer with the North Carolina Resources Commission.

"As far as I'm concerned, there's a substantial number of people who are taking these collars because they don't like hunting dogs and they don't like hunters," Kane said.

PETA opposes hunting, but the group also frowns upon those who would remove a collar and cause a dog to be lost or killed, said Daphna Nachminovitch, director of the organization's domestic animal department.

Nachminovitch said many people who see the devices probably think they are electronic shock collars that people use to train dogs. Still, she said making the crime a felony would be going too far.

"They look very scary and they're heavy, and I would hesitate to make a felon out of anybody who has good intentions and just wants to keep an animal from suffering," Nachminovitch said.

Allan Bishop of Hanover County has all but quit running his dogs after one was lost in 2004 while deer hunting. Someone removed both its electronic tracking collar and identification collar and threw them in a ditch. Today, his 14 hounds compete in simulated hunts in enclosed areas.

Bishop isn't alone. The number of Virginia hunters fell by 100,000 over the past decade, according to the state Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Subdivisions and other development now sit on land once used to hunt.

"The problem is, as I see it, a lot of folks moving out into the rural areas that have lived in the city and don't understand hunting," Bishop said.