Hunting dogs; releasing on state or local roadway, hunting, fishing, and trapping special license.
Summary
Releasing of hunting dogs; state or local roadway; hunting, fishing, and trapping special license; penalty. Creates a Class 3 misdemeanor for the release of hunting dogs on or within 15 feet of the edge of a roadway owned or maintained by the Department of Transportation or a locality and provides that a second or subsequent offense is a Class 1 misdemeanor. The bill allows a court to prohibit any person who released hunting dogs on or within 15 feet of the edge of a roadway owned or maintained by the Department or locality from hunting, trapping, or fishing in the Commonwealth for a period of up to five years. The bill permits the stopping of a vehicle on a highway for the retrieval of a companion animal from a highway or area adjacent to a highway. The bill allows certain people such as a landowner and other people associated with such landowner, stockholder, tenant, or guest of the landowner in certain circumstances, to apply for a special license to hunt, fish, and trap exclusively on a landowner's property in lieu of other hunting, fishing, and trapping licenses required by state law.
Bill status
in committee
1 of 4 stages cleared
Introduction
Jan 2026
Committee Review
Floor Vote
Governor
Introduced Jan 13, 2026
Last action Feb 3, 2026
Floor votes
How they voted
No floor votes recorded yet.
Full legislative history
Actions timeline
Total actions
4
Key actions
0
Committee
2
Jan 28, 2026
Committee
Assigned HACNR sub: Rural Affairs
upper
Jan 13, 2026
Committee
Referred to Committee on Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources
upper
1 primary · 0 co-sponsors
Sponsors
Role
Legislator
Party
State
District
P
Dave Marsden
DDemocratic
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