A bear hunter slams on the brakes of his four-wheel drive pickup truck. The bed of the truck is covered with a large box made for transporting dogs, in this case bear hounds. The driver of the truck and his son bounce out of the truck and start to open doors on the dog box. There are six hounds in the box and two standing on top of it.
The dogs on top are the “rig dogs” or “strike” dogs, they have smelled a bear track from their perch on top of the box. The strike dogs immediately start baying their signal that they have smelled a bear, in two seconds every hound in the truck is likewise barking with all their might. The volume is almost deafening. After ensuring that every hound has a locator collar on and working, the hunters release the hounds, and they race up the hillside from this remote mountain road. The hunters stand and listen for a few minutes soaking in the sound of the chase, this is why they are here. Soon the pack will be out of hearing, and they will have to keep track of the hound’s location with the satellite-based tracking collars. It could be many hours before they see the dogs again, or longer.
In another part of the state a hunter with his daughter and son standing quietly in a brushy field. They are spaced about fifty yards apart in a line and each carries a shotgun. Across the field from them their pack of five beagles are in full cry on the trail of a cottontail rabbit. The hunters wait for the rabbit to circle and run past them, hopefully giving them a shot. When the cry of the dogs turns toward them, they each feel a surge of excitement. It is impossible for them to listen to the beagle music and not be thrilled. The kids hope the rabbit will run past them; Dad hopes one of the kids will get the shot. The beagles just want to run rabbits.
In much the same setting, grown up fields and thickets, two hunters follow a pair of leggy pointers. The dogs are busy and intensely focused on the job at hand, finding birds. The hunters recognize when the dog’s intensity increases, and the whipping of their tails gets even faster. The dogs are on the scent of birds, in this case Bobwhite quail, and the hunters follow with almost as much excitement as the pointers. Soon the lead dog slams on to a statue like point and the rear dog immediately does the same. The hunters walk in behind the dogs knowing there could be an explosive covey rise of the quail any second. The air is thick with anticipation.
As we have talked about here more than twice it seems we have never been so divided as a people in the United States of America, even in the hunting and fishing world. One might think that there is not much to disagree or argue about in the examples I have set for you. But there is. Once upon a time some of these scenes would barley raise an eyebrow in the great scheme of things. Nobody worried much about what people do with hunting dogs. Today it is quite a bit different.
More than one western state has banned hunting bears and mountain lions and other predators with hounds. In many areas hunting with dogs is the best way, sometimes almost the only way, to take these animals. When hound hunting is banned predators (like mountain lions) sometimes reach a dangerous or undesirable level. Undesirable to some as in the number of game animals they prey on, like deer. Dangerous in that some areas (California) have seen an increase of attacks on humans when hunting them is banned.
In the southeast there has been a long tradition of hunting deer with dogs. This form of hunting goes back to colonial times and has been a tradition for hundreds of years. Instead of quietly stalking deer or waiting on a stand, deer hunting with dogs involves a pack of hounds chasing deer and the hunters waiting at strategic places, kind of like a big rabbit chase, but much larger in scale. This has always been a southern tradition, and it is remarkable to me that in Virginia basically hunting deer with dogs has been popular and legal east of the Blue Ridge Divide but prohibited west of that boundary. Similar to bear hunting with dogs, deer dog hunting requires a lot of room, that is a large area of land for the animals to run. This is where the problems start.
As noted here before the country is just not as big as it used to be. Huge areas of open land in the form of big farms and timber property have shrunk in size, chopped up and developed and the like. Where once local hunters knew most every landowner and had permission to run dogs there, this now may not be the case. Add to this some of the land is bought by those who move into the area and don’t come from a hunting and hunting dog background. Different ideas and cultures clash over hunting dogs running across their land. As with often happens in the east, a bear chase can start on National Forest land, or on a hunting lease, but may go for miles and cross private land.
There are no easy answers to any of these questions. Just like I have preached about hunter unity lacking between bow hunters, rifle hunters, those who bait for hunting, those who do not, and twenty-two other issues. To complicate things even more the dog hunting issues are often taken up by those who simply want to ban all hunting. These people don’t hunt, they don’t want you to hunt, and doing away with some form of dog hunting is just a way for them to get to their end goal. State fish and game agencies are caught in the middle of all this and often danged if they do and danged if they don’t. (But they need to support hunters and hunting whenever they can.)
Again, there are no easy solutions here folks. But nothing will ever be accomplished if differing parties are not willing to sit down and talk about things like they have some sense. Having said that, these modern-day issues require all hunters and sportsmen to stay vigilant.
Larry Case www.gunsandcornbread.com
