ORIGINAL: Vulture6



Just because you've been running dogs across a piece of property that isn't yours for the last 20 years doesn't mean that you have the right to eminent domain. If this guy has legal lease (rent) on this property it is you that must make accommodation. Yes, that means that you might have to change what you've been doing. If you had leased / rented this 150 acres then you would have right to use it for your dogs without anyone else's permission. When the land came up for lease/rent, you had the opportunity to step up and gain access rights by renting/leasing it... you knew that someone might rent/lease/buy it who wouldn't care that you had been running dogs across it for 20 years when it belonged to someone else, but that was a risk you decided to take! Hey, grow up and realize that it's not your land!

What did you expect - that he'd pay the rent and / or property taxes so that you could continue to use his property without his permission?

Did you approach him and ask permission to run your dogs across his property? Or did you just assume that since you're not turning out on his land that you didn't owe him at least the courtesy of contacting him?

It sounds like you're running dogs two to three times a week between this 150 acre tact and this 300 acre tract... that you let out on one and collect on the other. That may not be the case, but that's how I read your post. If that is the case, then it isn't a case of your dogs occasionally getting by you.

Since this is tract in the middle is not your land, it is your responsibility to contact him about running dogs on or across his property (whether intentionally or simply to address the circumstances when a couple of them get by you). Are you legally required to? No, but it is the decent and courteous thing to do... it's the right thing to do. That would be asking him it it would be okay to run your dogs from one property to the other and crossing his land in between. Tell him that you'd be willing to coordinate with him on the days that you'd be doing it so as not to disturb him when he's using the property (whether he's hunting, doing a nature walk, or having cub scouts camp out there -- it's his land, for crying out loud!). On the days when he's using the land that you're hunting, you'd either not run the dogs or try your best to contain them on your property. If you took those steps rather than saying "we've run dogs here for 20 years, what the hell did you expect?", then I think you would have might have been surprised at how things might have been different. Even if he said "no", then you would still have the right, under current law, to cross onto his land to retrieve your dogs, but at least you would have done the honorable thing by asking.



Now, if this is the guy that you mentioned in your first post that shot your dog, then he's a jerk -- but that doesn't change the circumstance. I don't think it's the same guy because in this post you say that this guy just came in and rented the land (I assume recently) and in the other post you say that you've been watching out for his land for years. Anyway, that doesn't matter because it's never okay to shoot someone's dog unless it is threatening you or your kids.