It’s truly time for foxhunters to become more proactive in understanding and shaping their county and state laws regarding animal control and welfare.

In our 2007 Hunt Roster Issue, freelancer Donna Ross wrote the article “A Wave Of Restrictions May Affect The Future Of Foxhunting.” In it, she warned that local, regional and state legislation could have unintended consequences for hunt kennels, and that laws seeking to target puppy mills and irresponsible owners could make keeping hounds in large numbers impossible either legally or economically. It’s an article that, quite frankly, we could run every year in this issue.

Many people believe that if foxhunting becomes extinct in the United States it won’t be from an all-out ban, like the one imposed in England in 2005. Its demise will be the ever-tightening restrictions on dog ownership that will eventually make it impossible to maintain a pack of hounds.

In July, Wendy Willard, MBH and Huntsman of the Murder Hollow Bassets, fell victim to this scenario. She’s currently fighting to bring her hounds home, but the battle is far from over.

A complaint from an unidentified neighbor brought officers from the Pennsylvania Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals to her door. Since Willard’s farm lies just inside the border of the city of Philadelphia, she was subject to Philadelphia’s Animal Control Code, which prohibits keeping more than 12 dogs or cats in a residential dwelling unit.

Willard voluntarily surrendered 11 of the 23 hounds on the property to avoid PSPCA officers seizing them and then immediately began a lengthy and complicated legal battle to get them back.

The hunting community quickly sprang to help Willard. An attorney has been obtained, and the National Animal Interest Alliance Trust (www.naiatrust.org) began coordinating a defense fund for Willard. The NAIA is a 501(c)(4) organization “to promote responsible animal care and ownership and reasonable laws, policies and regulations to protect animals and the people who care for them.”

Those contributing to Willard’s efforts include the Masters of Foxhounds Association, the National Beagle Club of America, the Pennsylvania Federation of Dog Clubs, local hunt clubs, local dog clubs and other interested parties.

The NAIA is a valuable resource for all interested in protecting themselves from possible problems with animal care and control laws. The website provides information about pending legislation, and its mission statement is to “safeguard the rights of responsible animal owners, enthusiasts and professionals through education, legislation and the courts.”

We can continue to publish articles about the looming legislative threats to foxhunting, but the writing has been on the wall for quite a while. If foxhunters want to have hounds to follow in the future, they have to educate themselves, understand local laws already in place and become aware of proposed laws that might be on the books in the near future.

If foxhunters want to enjoy their sport as it is—and not a modified version like their brethren in England—they have to ensure that they have a voice in creating the laws that affect them, and the only way to do that is to be heard.