By DAPHNE HUTCHINSON

By DAPHNE HUTCHINSON

Rappahannock News Special Writer

If Supervisor Nelson Lane has his way, “slob hunters” in Rappahannock County will face road blocks in the form of new local ordinances when deer season returns this fall.

Mr. Lane was in Richmond last Friday for the game commission’s hearing on the “slob hunter” problem. After telling the commissioners of a 60-year-old widow who was shot by thugs who were hunting illegally, he ticked off a list of complaints.

Mr. Lane criticized the commission’s decision to have an extra five weeks of deer hunting east of the Blue Ridge. (The season runs only two weeks west of the mountains.) Control of wildlife population “is not vested in the length of the season but through bag limits and enforcement of game laws,” he maintained. Citing a time during last year’s deer season when only one warden was on duty in a five-county area of the Piedmont, Mr. Lane described as “damn irresponsible” the commission’s policy of allowing officers in its already undermanned law enforcement division to take vacation during hunting season.

“It’s like letting the sheep dog leave when the baby lambs are being born,” he said.

“Game laws allow and encourage trespassing,” Mr. Lane charged. He pointed to the law that allows dogs to hunt on posted property and disarmed hunters to follow to retrieve those dogs.

“It’s easy to throw a gun behind a stump (when the warden arrives),” Mr. Lane said, noting that going after dogs is often an excuse to trespass and hunt on posted land.

In addition, he characterized hunting deer with dogs as “unfair and unsporting” in the first place.

“Game wardens are severely understaffed,” Mr. Lane said, calling for assistance from sheriffs departments and other agencies during hunting season. As for other solutions to the “slob hunter” problem,