General Assembly bills toughening penalties for animal fighting could put the clamps on a centuries-old sport in Virginia -- fox hunting.

"Given what the bill says, it will kill fox hunting in Virginia," said Dennis Foster, executive director of the Masters of Foxhounds Association of North America, which is based in the heart of Virginia hunt country in Northern Virginia.

Speaking on a cell phone from horseback outside Middleburg yesterday, Foster said he was unaware of the companion bills' scope and is concerned about language making it a crime to watch or organize animal fighting.

Robin Starr, executive director of the Richmond SPCA, said yesterday that the animal-fighting bill was never intended to affect fox hunting.

"I don't consider it a fight. The fox doesn't stand a chance. The dogs catch it and tear it to shreds," she said.

"I think it's a stretch to consider this element of hunting as fighting," said Daphna Nachminovitch, director of cruelty investigations for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals.

But she stopped short of saying she would support an amendment that excluded fox hunting.

"That would be a tough call," she said. "We'd want to see the language."

The twin bills in the House and Senate add strict penalties for spectators and organizers of animal fighting. The bills were prompted by dog-fighting convictions won against suspended Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick.

A spokesman for bill sponsor, state Sen. Thomas K. Norment Jr., R-James City, said last night that an amendment is in the works to exclude hunting dogs from coming under the animal-fighting provisions of the bill.

Fox hunting in Virginia still allows hounds to chase a fox and kill it, although some hunts have changed the traditional bloody end.

Under the bills, law-enforcement officers could charge spectators -- including those riding horses -- with a felony and confiscate the animals being fought.

The American Foxhound is the state dog.
Contact Bill McKelway at (804) 649-6601 or bmckelway@timesdispatch.com.