Editor, Gazette-Journal: In 1938, prior to World War II, Virginia enacted a law permitting hunters to enter private property to retrieve hunting hounds. Known as the “right to retrieve,” this statute under VA Code § 18.2-136 shields hound hunters from criminal trespass charges. The law also stipulates that hunters may not drive vehicles or carry firearms on posted land. A lot has changed in Virginia since the late ’30s. In Gloucester County today, hunt clubs will use multiple trucks, GPS tracking, and public roads to hunt large areas. At times, hound hunters put the driving public at risk while tracking and coordinating hunts along roadways. Worse still, some of these hunt clubs abuse right to retrieve by releasing dogs on small land parcels to chase deer into and through posted private lands. Hounds can range two miles or more during a typical hunt. Few Virginians realize the code imposes no limitations on the number of hunters entering private property, the manner of search, the freq...