FirstBow,
I will try to answer your question logically and from an objective standpoint. I do not see why you question the fair chase of it? If it is unfair to let dogs run a deer to you, then it is also unfair to use a treestand, high powered rifles, modern archery equipment, camoflauge or anything else that could even remotely give you an advantage. Same goes for scents, calls, blinds, bait and so on. I don't see how using a dog is any more advantage over a deer than climbing up a tree where they cannot see you. Now, I use treestands and all the equipment I just mentioned, but the point I'm trying to make is that if any one single method is unfair chase, than so is every other method used to gain an advantage. I may be going out on a limb, but I don't understand, on some levels, where fairness comes into play in hunting. You go into the woods with a weapon and a sense of reason that animals don't have, and you use your skills to outsmart and harvest an animal. It is an ancient way of life, and even though it has developed into sport because of modern amenities, the object, along with being able to simply enjoy the sport and teach lessons to our youth, is still the same - to at least try to kill something for food, and now also for sport. If "fairness" were an issue, you could make a logical arguement against any method of take. You could also make a logicalcounterarguement.

Here is another way of looking at it. How is allowing a birddog that has an extremely sensitive, keen, and focused nose developed from decades of careful breeding to pinpoint the exact location of a covey of quail so that a person can shoot them any more "ethical" or "fair," as you suggest, than letting a couple good hounds run a section of woods in hopes that a deer may spook? There's no difference. In fact, getting the quail might be easier and therefore subject to a "fairness" arguement. Their both legal methods in their respective areas and have the same concept, which is to enjoy the work of a good dog and perhaps reap a harvest as a result. If using a dog to chase big game is wrong, then using a mouth call to draw in a tom turkey is wrong. Fairness is not an issue. Some methods of hunt just have more advantages over the other (such as rifles over bows), but that does not mean any of them are "unfair." Some methods of hunt may be less fair than others in that it is easier to get the animal in the game bag, but it doesn't make them wrong. You got a better chance of getting a duck over a pond than you do in the desert, but that doesn't mean it is unfair chase if you get right on a pond and sit in a duck's living room. If you had to be more "fair" and give the duck a better chance, you better hunt the desert. Are you starting to catch my drift?

Story: A few weeks back I was deer hunting when I heard a rifle crack several hundred yards off. A few minutes later a buck came through that had been pushed my way because of the other hunter. I did not get a shot but would have taken one if it was presented. Would it have been unfair because something, albeit a hunter, pushed him my way? Of course not. The deer came into my shooting lane by means of circumstance and was fair game. But a hunter several hundred yards off that pushed a deer my way would technically be no different than a dog pushing it to me.

These are just a few thoughts for you to consider since I know you are trying to see this in the light that dog hunters see it in. Now personally, I hunt squirrels and birds with dogs because I like hunting and I like dogs. Put them together, no matter what game you are pursuing, and you've got a winning hobby in my book. It's about enjoying the work of a good dog, bred for an ancient purpose - hunting. Dogs were likely a necessity for hunters back during a time when you couldn't get your burgers at McDonald's. Some pioneers depended on their dogs for hunting, herding, protection and so on. It's a tradition that has been carried on to become sport. Just like bowhunting, it might be a little more primitive and something that used to be necessity, but we've found a way to carry both of these on to become hobbies. I hope this has shed some light for you.