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To the Editor:

The leaders of Virginia Hunting Dog Alliance have been asked many times how we decide to support the candidates we choose to endorse. It is easy to say, “We support those who have supported us,” but often it is just that simple. If an incumbent has consistently voted to support the values of rural Virginia, especially in the defense of the tradition of hunting with dogs, they deserve to be supported.

We have been fortunate to have many friends in the Virginia General Assembly who have honored our hunting traditions and defended dog ownership. It is vitally important to have representatives from both parties support us. There is no better example of this than the fight to end the Right-To-Retrieve law (RTR) in the 2017 Session of the General Assembly with Delegate Roslyn Tyler.

The Republican Speaker surprisingly filed a bill (HB 1900) to end the RTR as the last bill of his legislative career. The bill divided the Republican caucus, as many did not want to oppose their longtime leader and friend, while other members knew the importance of the RTR to rural Virginia both culturally and economically.

At this point, Delegate Roslyn Tyler from Jarratt took up the fight of her friends and hunters to defend the RTR on the floor of the House of Delegates. In an impassioned speech, Tyler told her colleagues what hunting with dogs meant to her community and to her personally. No doubt, she had much to say in her closed Democratic caucus meeting prior to the floor vote and many of them listened and voted to preserve that law that had been in place since 1936. The vote in 2017 was 47 to 48. We won by one vote! Without Del. Tyler, not just voting with us, but leading the fight on our behalf, the RTR would have been abolished!

Delegate Tyler has continued to play an active role in defending our heritage of hunting with dogs in Virginia. She has gone to bat for us many times since that crucial vote, including in June of this year when Wildlife Resources Chairman John Daniel was again attacking hunting with dogs. We enthusiastically endorse Delegate Roslyn Tyler’s reelection in 2021 and urge the people of 75th District to vote for her reelection on Nov. 2.

Kirby Burch,

Chief Operating Officer

Virginia Hunting Dog Alliance