Chap. 184.—An ACT to amend and re-enact Section 68 of chapter 247 of the Act
of the General Assembly of 1930, approved March 24, 1930, and designated an
cited as the Game, Inland Fish and Dog Code of Virginia, said section relatin
to when a dog is deemed personal property, and to rights and powers inciden
thereto. {H B 33.

Approved March 12, 1940

1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia, That Sec
tion sixty-eight of Chapter two hundred and forty-seven of the Act
of the General Assembly of nineteen hundred and thirty, approver
March twenty-fourth, nineteen hundred and thirty, and designatec
and cited as the Game, Inland Fish and Dog Code of Virginia, bi
amended and re-enacted so as to read as follows:

Section 68. All dogs in this State which are licensed, and al
dogs under four months of age, whether licensed or not, shall be deemec
personal property and may be the subject of larceny and malicious o1
unlawful trespass, and the owners thereof may maintain any actior
for the killing of any such dogs, or injury thereto, or unlawful detention
or use thereof as in the case of other personal property and it shall be
unlawful for any person except the owner or his authorized agent ta
administer poison to any such dog or expose poison where it may be
taken by any such dog, or to injure, disfigure, disable or kill any such
dog except as otherwise provided in this act. The owner of any dog
which is injured or killed contrary to the provisions of this act by any
person shall be entitled to recover the value thereof or the damage done
thereto in an appropriate action at law from such person. A game
warden or other officer finding a stolen dog, or a dog held or detained
-ontrary to law, shall have authority to seize and hold such dog pend-
ing action before a justice or other court. If no such action is insti-
tuted within five days the game warden or other officer shall deliver
the dog to its owner. The presence of a dog on the premises of a
erson other than its legal owner shall raise no presumption of theft
igainst the owner of such premises but it shall be his duty to notify
che game warden thereof and the game warden shall take such dog in
harge and notify its legal owner to remove him. The legal owner of
he dog shall pay a reasonable charge for the keep of said dog while in
he possession of the game warden.