STONY CREEK, Va. — Emerson Poarch Jr., 72, says his father went to his grave incredulous that hunters would pay a fee to run their hounds in a “fox pen.”

The fox hunting tradition Emerson Sr. observed as a Virginia farmer was not so different from that known by George Washington, who on horseback joined his hounds in pursuit of foxes through the countryside near his Mount Vernon estate.

Eventually, rural turned suburban, and homeowners complained about dogs’ trespassing. Roadways replaced forests, resulting in more dogs being struck by vehicles. And now one kind of fox hunting has become a cultural flash point in a state where many feel that rural traditions are under assault and where animal rights sentiments carry more weight than they ever did in the past.

At issue are foxhound training preserves, as they are officially called, which were established as part of an earlier effort to keep the peace. Inside fenced enclosures averaging 200 acres, hounds pursue wild foxes. Sometimes, as might be expected, the hounds catch and kill the foxes, and that is the latest problem.