Chap. 140.—An ACT to amend and re-enact section 2324 of the Code of Virginia,
in relation to dogs. [H B 208)
Approved March 14, 1924.

1. Be it enacted by the general assembly of Virginia, That section
twenty-three hundred and twenty-four of the Code of Virginia be
amended and re-enacted to read as follows:

Section 2324. Dogs assessed deemed personal property; larceny
and detention of dogs.—All dogs in this State which have been assessed
with a license tax, and upon which said license is not delinquent, shall
be deemed personal property, and may be the subject of larceny and
malicious or unlawful trespass, and the owner thereof may maintain
any action for injury thereto, or unlawful detention thereof, as in the
ease of other personal property. Any warrant or other process issued
for the arrest of any person charged with larceny under this section may
be executed by any sheriff, sergeant, constable or game warden. Any
game warden or other officer finding a stolen dog, or a dog held or de-
tained contrary to law, shall have authority to seize and hold such dog
pending action of a justice or the court trying the case. If no action
is instituted within a reasonable time the game warden or other officer
shall deliver the dog to its legal owner.

Any person taking or stealing any dog, the property of another, on
which taxes are not delinquent, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor
and upon conviction shall be fined not less than ten dollars nor more
than one hundred dollars or confinement in jail for a period not to exceed
thirty days or both. The presence of a dog on the premises of a person
other than the owner of such dog shall raise no presumption of theft
against the owner of such premises.