Virginia's House Bill #990 would, if enacted, allow local officials to authorize only "non-lethal" efforts to "control" elk that are running over your garden or orchard. Full text:
http://lis.virginia.gov/cgi-bin/legp604.exe?121+ful+HB990
According to Wikipedia, an adult elk weighs 500-750 pounds. We are not talking about an animal that will normally bound away from your car, or that will leave only a picturesque dent if it charges your car head-on. The average elk eats 8-15 pounds of plants, favoring the new growth on fruit trees, per day. And they run in herds.
Local jurisdictions are usually the best suited to weigh this kind of question, but when it's a crime to let a healthy, vaccinated, six-pound house cat roam in Fairfax County because a neighbor might not like the cat's help in removing vermin from the neighbor's property, and then homeowners in Wise County are asked to put up with six-hundred-pound free-ranging vermin that can kill you if they step on you, something about this situation does seem strange.
HB990 doesn't go nearly far enough. We need firmness here. Those who want elk in Virginia, not those who want to keep a house cat in Fairfax, are the ones who need to be told, "If you insist on keeping that animal, you must keep it confined to your property."
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