The vast majority of dog hunters don't care about the dogs on a personal level. They are tools. Unfortunately alot of these same guys don't treat them that well either.

Doesn't mean every dog runner is that way. I have a friend that has some great dogs, and he treats them like kings and goes to great lengths to find any that might go missing. He also has tracking collars on all of them.

You did the right thing as much as you hated to.