re: It's time to ban dog deer hunting

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The same way everybody else stops every other kind of trespasser from trespassing on their land. Confront them, then start calling the law on them.

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So let's say confronting them does not work, and by the way it never does, then what? Game wardens barely even respond to dog hunting issues anymore because they get so many calls about it all the time and almost every time by the time they can respond the dog hunters are long gone or there is nothing they can do because only the dogs are trespassing and not the hunters.

The game wardens can't do shite about it, the law abiding property owners can't do shite without getting into a gunfight with a pack of 20 drunks v. one owner, and so it is time for our laws to do something about it. Stopping dog hunters as a property owner is about like a saloon owner in the desert trying to stop a biker gang from trashing the place.

I feel where you're coming from brother, I just ain't there anymore. One of my wife's coworkers caught a dog at his deer stand last year. He brought him to his truck and called the sheriff. A herd of black guys (that they have busted multiple times in the past) dhow up and surround him. One loads his shotgun and walks up to him and says he has his dog. Coworker says he was waiting on sheriff. That son of a bitch walks past him and opens his truck door and takes the dog. Then they all load up and tear out. That bastard is sitting in jail now.

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trashing the place.

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We haven't even mentioned ruts and tearing up dirt roads yet.

It really is, but looking back, we were disrespectful back them too. Truth is that I never knew a dog hunter that was respectful of property lines or game laws. None. Ever. In any part of the state. I knew a lot of em.

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No, but we would keep them from getting on your property.

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How so?

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land elsewhere to hunt

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Your 3000 acres is only 5 square miles... there is no way to keep dogs on that. If you dropped them off in the middle its only 2.5 miles to a boundry.


Also, you didn't answer my question about how you'd feel when they start running on your property.

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However, we only run dogs two days a week, only turn loose 4-6 dogs per hunt

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That's the way we did it in Pike County, too. Each stand hunter always carried some baling twine or nylon string. If the deer got by you, and sometimes that happened, your obligation and job then was to catch up as many dogs as you could and put a string leash on em. I've had as many as six dogs caught up with three Walkers in each hand. My Uncle had one particular Walker that didn't like to be caught up. He'd dodge the stand hunter and keep after the deer. One time that I remember he got by the stander and was GONE. A week later after I got back home here in Virginia, my uncle got a call from a feller in Montgomery and he told him his dog was layin up in his woodshed. Yellow Boy had covered the 50 miles to Montgomery til his feet were raw and he was finally give plum out. Sometimes the dogs get by you and that's just part of it. We only ran the dogs where we had plenty of room for the dogs. The landowners in that area owned a LOT of land and by mutual agreement, everybody got to run on each other's land. Probably had about 10,000 acres with all of it together. But everywhere else, there was no dog hunting. Plenty of land, but a few of the landowners were against deer dogging, so...no deer dogging there. Some of my family were some of those landowners, too, and believe me, I saw family arguments and hard feelings for years over deer dogging. To me, deer dogging and deer hunting is never worth the cost of dividing your family. FWIW, deer dogging is against the law in this end of Virginia. People up here will shoot any dog they catch running a deer. Our problem is with the unethical "hunters" who go out and release a pack of strays right before deer season. These dogs pack up, run deer, cattle, sheep, or anything they can catch and eat. They're starving and just doing what any hungry dog would do. And then we have to shoot em.

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Keep in mind that if they don't set foot on your property, the dog hunters are law abiding property owners as well. That term has been used quite liberally so far.

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This MAY be a stretch.

Look, banning dog hunting has a topic of discussion for years. Back when I was growing up there were a small minority of hunters complaining and much support for the dog hunters. Times have changed. As seasons have been slashed and land leased up the dig hunters have become more bold. It's like the more they feel their lifestyle is threatened the more determined they are to do it anyway. It's a bad look.

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They most definitely can do something about the hunters on your property. If you have a trail camera picture of them on your property or a game warden catches them there, you can smoke their arse.

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Again, it's dogs on my property, not dog hunters. And the law does little to nothing to keep their dogs from intentionally going on my property.

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Keep in mind that if they don't set foot on your property, the dog hunters are law abiding property owners as well. That term has been used quite liberally so far.

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Which is exactly why the law needs to change. The whole "it's not me, it's my dogs and I can't control them" line is getting ridiculous and property owners are getting sick and tired of it. Don't blame us. Blame your fellow dog hunters who have ruined it for you.

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FWIW, most of the dogs that leave our boundaries are hit by a car before they get to someone else's property. Most of our boundaries are major highways.

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This made me chuckle. Y'all payin for all that damage?