ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, April 26, 1996 TAG: 9604260079
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
State game officials on Thursday extended the fox-trapping season to provide animals for use in fox chases.
The measure approved by the board of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries allows trapping within a 50-mile radius of a fox preserve and transportation of the animals to the fenced enclosures, department spokesman Rich Jefferson said.
Under the new law, which takes effect immediately, the season lasts from the beginning of September until the end of February. Trapping season previously lasted 11 weeks.
The pens are used by night hunters who use hounds to chase the foxes, and hunters who follow their dogs on horseback. While the night hunters see pen chases as sport, the mounted hunters use the pen chases to train inexperienced hounds.
The Humane Society of the United States said the vote amounts to ``state-sanctioned animal cruelty.''
Susan Hagood, a wildlife-issues specialist at the Humane Society who testified against the regulations, said the board has voted ``to provide recreation for a few at the expense of the foxes who will be cruelly trapped, then chased and possibly killed in fox pens.''
Animal-rights activists and some hunters say the 100- to 300-acre pens offer ``canned hunts'' that don't give foxes enough chances to escape and could speed the spread of rabies and other diseases.
LENGTH: Short : 37 linesby CNB