Virginia Property Owners Fight Back: Challenging Hunters’ Right to Trespass Under Retrieval Laws

It may come as a surprise to many property owners that depending upon the gun laws in a given state they may not have any legal right to prevent trespasses onto their own property from hunters and dogs seeking to retrieve. But recently several property owners in Virginia sued the Department of Wildlife Resources over the impact of Va. Code § 18.2-136  which provides that “fox hunters and coon hunters, when the chase begins on other lands, may follow their dogs on prohibited lands, and hunters of all other game, when the chase begins on other lands, may go upon prohibited lands to retrieve their dogs, falcons, hawks, or owls but may not carry firearms or bows and arrows on their persons or hunt any game while thereon.”  Here’s the Petition, which seeks both declaratory relief and just compensation. The property owners are being represented by the Pacific Legal Foundation.

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