Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

Prince Edward County fielded several hunting related calls in the past year, said Sheriff Tony Epps, but only one that involved the right to retrieve animals. He looked back even further, from Nov. 1, 2023 to now and two calls showed up in his search.

“We had one trespassing by hunters complaint and one shots fired at night, believed to be from spot lightning,” Epps said. 

A third complaint involved hunting dogs killing chickens. 

Prince Edward is one of a handful of counties labeled as “hot spots” in Central and Southside Virginia when it comes to hounds getting lost during a hunt and hunters showing up on someone’s property to try and find them. 

Parts of Buckingham, Prince Edward, Charlotte, Lunenburg and Nottoway counties were part of a Central Virginia hot spot, with between 130 and 336 complaints filed between Jan. 2, 2022 and Jan. 7, 2023, according to the Virginia Department of Wildlife Resources (DWR). 

Hunters recently scored a victory in that fight, as the Virginia Supreme Court upheld their right to retrieve. The Sept. 26 decision affirmed the Court of Appeals ruling that allows sportsmen to go onto private property to retrieve their hunting dogs.

Complaints from both sides

In Charlotte County, Sheriff Randy Grissom said his office has received complaints from both sides of the issue in the past.

“We typically notify the Department of Wildlife Resources and have investigated these types of calls in the past and my department will continue to investigate and assist,” Grissom said. 

In years past, the Charlotte County Board of Supervisors have approved resolutions in support of the right to retrieve.

Charlotte County Administrator Dan Witt said the current board has not discussed or acted on the issue, but supervisors in 2016 and 2007 did approve such resolutions.

The resolution approved on Jan. 12, 2016 states that Charlotte County has a tradition of hunting with dogs that is old as the county.

“The tradition of hunting with dogs provides significant economic and cultural benefit to rural localities across the commonwealth, including Charlotte County,” the resolution stated.

It goes on to say that hunting with dogs helps to control the wildlife population, which reduces motor vehicle collisions, crop damage and the spread of wildlife diseases.

“The tradition of hunting with dogs is a wholesome family-oriented heritage that teaches self-reliance, individual responsibility and the values of community stewardship of our God given natural resources,” the supervisor’s stated in the resolution.

The board proclaimed its support for the use of dogs for hunting in the commonwealth as prescribed by state laws.

“The Charlotte County Board of Supervisors supports our heritage of hunting with dogs, especially hounds, and opposes any actions on the part of the Virginia Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and the General Assembly of Virginia that are detrimental to that tradition,” the resolution concludes.

Grissom said the state Supreme Court decision to uphold a hunter’s right to retrieve is a law in Virginia, which his department will abide by. 

“If a person retrieving their dogs is within the confines of the Code of VA 18.2-136, the Virginia Supreme Court has upheld it and it is legal/allowed,” the sheriff said. “I feel the majority of dog hunters in Charlotte County and the State of Virginia when retrieving dogs do so legally and ethically within the guidelines spelled out in the code. I urge all hunters and landowners to familiarize themselves with the code section. I also ask for both parties — landowners and hunters — involved in these situations not to become confrontational if faced with this issue.”

Grissom asked them to please notify the Charlotte County Sheriff’s Office and his deputies or DGIF will respond to investigate the matter. 

‘A huge win’ for right to retrieve 

Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares called the court’s ruling a huge win for Virginia’s hunting dog community.

“Virginia hunters treat their dogs as family, and there are fewer traditions more prized by rural Virginians than our hunting dogs,” Miyares said in a statement to media. “More than half of hunters in Virginia use hunting dogs, and fewer than 60 out of 6,000 hunting complaints involved trespass violations involving hunting dogs.”

The attorney general explained that the right to retrieve has existed without incident in Virginia law for more than 100 years. 

“George Washington himself is credited with being the father of the American foxhound, the original brace being a gift of the Marquis de Lafayette,”Miyares said. “Virginia’s right to retrieve is a sound reminder that nature, tradition and neighborliness remain qualities we still value as Virginians.”

In January 2024, three hunting dogs were killed in King and Queen County, Virginia in what was described as a “hate crime against dogs” by local media. In 2019, a hunting dog was brutally killed by a Caroline County couple. Over 24 Virginia localities have passed resolutions in defense of right to retrieve as a rural Virginia tradition.

Locally, Charlotte County is the only one that has addressed the right to retrieve. County administrators in Lunenburg and in Prince Edward said their boards of supervisors have not discussed or acted on resolutions addressing it.