Mississippi here . . .I grew up dog hunting . . . .and sometimes we even shot a deer. Most of the time tho we just hunted dogs. In the 50s and even the 60s nobody cared much if our dogs got on their property as nobody hunted from tree stands and the population was'nt as dense, plus most lands were large tracts that had'nt yet been sold off in smaller parcels.
Early on we hunted with black and tans, ticks, red bone and cur crosses, and they were not prone to visiting other continents. Eventually tho still hunting and food plots started gaining favor and more and more lands were posted. About this time the walker hounds started showing up in our packs and we were losing more and more control of our dogs. It was'nt uncommon to get a call to come get our hounds from 50+ miles away.
It's not unethical to run deer with dogs . .it's legal to do here. Your required tho to not trespass and that can't be done as you can not keep your hounds on a couple hundred acres. If your dogs are running on other folks posted property then you've been unethical. So it's just not practical any longer.
I loved dog hunting for deer, but mostly I loved hunting dogs with family and friends. We would usually start meeting up at 4am . .argue about where to go and who to put where until well after good light and then go out and argue with other doggers the rest of the morning.
. . .Kind of an exageration, but pretty close to the truth.
It's been yrs since I've seriously used dogs on deer and I now wish that the practice would just be banned. To an extent most folks have gotten away from it, while the remaining deer doggers are mostly poachers. . . .just a fact.
Overall, ethical can be a relative term with the definition varying depending on who you ask. To me it's just another way to hunt and ony unethical if you break the laws or ignore property lines. You can legally turn your dogs loose on your half acre lot but you can't keep them off your neighbors property. It's unethical to turn them loose knowing full well that their headed to farmer Joe's farm.