Hokieman

That's right, Keep pushing for the ultimate ban. and see if your huntingrights in the next few yrs isn't taking away. The big picture has been spelled out for you and your not seeing it. nothing else anyone can do.

Phil from Maine

I am still here I just had to go to work for my 12 hour night shift.. I am afraid some do not see the big picture that this is bringing on. Take this state up here called Maine, though there is no hunting with dogs for deer as mentioned before. We do have bear hounds, fox hounds, coyote hounds, cat hounds, and ect. We also have a very large state that doesn't have a big population of people either. Hunters here get along for the most part, it has to be that way for our future hunting rights. Paper companies own the land that most of us hunt on and are also selling large lots of land off. The bee lady up here buys acres upon acres when she can and stops hunting on it all together. Sportmans clubs here are working and trying to open some of this land up for hunters and others to enjoy. To date not much luck. Is that work of hunting dogs that closed this? No it was not it was an anti hunting person that closed it. Now getting back to the subject, with all of Maines vast woodlands and all we do not have much of an issue as mention all through this subject. Because #1 reason is we make the warden service do thier job. Enforce the laws regulating hunting and fishing as well as making the fines greater to discourage the issue you are having. As mentioned before by Lanse ( I think it was ) that the wardens need to be made to do thier jobs. If folks are running thier dogs illeagaly then they need to be made accountable, no ifs,ands,or buts about it. Here training permits allow the training of hounds to be taking place. I am not 100% sure butI believe that the training times are restricted to certain times of the year when most young can manuver around quite well. So do you really need to make more laws because of lack of enforcement? I do not think any law will stop it if you folks can not make the warden service down there accountable for not doing the job that they are hired to do. The real picture if you can not get them to enforce the laws of your state is simply to close all hunting down. That would be wrong to the hunting communities down there as well as all hunters that enjoy the sport of hunting regaurdless of how they choose to hunt. Perhaps you folks need to make fines greater than they are and start holding your warden service accountable.. That's all I can add to this as it is not going anywhere right now that I can see.I feel sorry for the hunters down there when they can pick and choose who has a right to hunt and who doesn't..

Bigg~BirddVA

More doom and gloom fear tactics meant to scare those not taking the time to think it through. They do just fine in the rest of VA without deer dogs. They do just fine in most of the US without deer dogs. Hunting isn't going anywhere. How soon we forget that right here home state of peta we passed a constitutional amendment that protects hunting. Take your sky is falling line of dog crap back over to speedogs.

SwampCollie

I know that neither me nor Landon want anything to do with an ULITIMATE ban. Heck I might only go on or two dog drives a year, but still, done correctly and with at least a spoonful of common sense and general concern for other hunters, dog driving is not only fun but its a very good way to manage the deer herd, especially in SEVA where we are. Its so thick that short of using dogs, we'd have to go to what SC has with super long seasons and rifles in order to keep deer from eating already drought poor crops right down to the dirt.

What I am sick of is having early season bow hunts and spring turkey hunts ruined by people "running foxes". Heck last year it was two hours before legal shooting time and I was pulling in to one of my duck blinds and when I killed the motor I heard all sorts of cain being raised just up on the bank. I shined the light up river and saw a pair of eyes out in the water... four dogs, still running at 4 am. Deer was so tired it had to hit the river and the dogs just kept "hounding" it. Deer finally hit the current and went downstream and shook the dogs, which stayed around behind my blind all morning and I had a heck of a time keeping Dutch's attention on the matter at hand. I hunted until about 1230 and the dogs just kept wandering off on to this piece of land and jumping another deer and running it until they lost the scent. I happened to know the landowner (obviously because I built my blind there) and he was not impressed at all as he had been deer hunting that morning with his son about 1000 yards up river from where we were.

Lanse couche couche

Well, i guess I will have to take another whack at the dead horse here; If i wanted to take shots at still hunters like you folks do with doggers, I could likely go into the same places and dig up plenty more testimonials about plenty of misconductby still hunters.Some of you folks have picked your target based on some individual bad experiences or personal predjudice,and are now operating with tunnel vision. So much so, that some of you don't mind being in bed withanimal rights activists and other folks whose agenda is ending hunting, not "reform."And I don't give a rip if it is Louisiana, Virginia, or outer Mongolia, when I have folks with a definite agenda, who are in bed with animal rights activists and other unsavory characters, I am gonna call a spade a spade.

Speaking of some of the anti-doggers' possible bedmates, I checked out the PETA site. The anti-meat video with a nude Alicia Silverstone is pretty easy on the eyes.

SwampCollie

What I'm taking a whack at is folks that are breaking the law currently. I've only twice in my life had a hunt interrupted by a dog driver looking for his dogs. My hunts are mainly messed up by people who are running deer outside of the deer season. Thats what I have an issue with. And you can try and call a spade a spade if you want, but you still haven't answered my ? about your hunting experiences in Virginia.... and if ommission is a sign of guilt, then you wouldn't know a spade if it ran barking through the middle of your spring turkey hunt.

Please do find some testimonials on still hunting misconduct in VA. And please make a new thread for it. I'll be eagerly waiting.

Vabowman

Lanse I want to keep this all in good fun and I think the Alicia Silverstone PETA thing is very funny. On the other hand, why do you insist on saying we want a ban or we are in bed with animal rights?? Where did we say this? We both said that we partake in dog hunting, and I do it from mid Nov to Jan..Look no one wants to point a finger at just dog hunters, I realize that all hunters can be screw ups, but the issue at hand is the conduct of dog owners in Va. If it were still/bowhunters, then that would be the issue in debate right?? But it's not. All we are asking is to not run dogs in the off season. That is not asking to even reform dog hunting, that's already a law!!!! I got an idea.....instead of trying to fight the laws, why not just follow them and end all discussion?? I was talking with my fishing buddy yesterday and he said one of his friends was bragging about his long legged beagles catching and killing a fawn last Sat.....now tell me why he would lie?? He exclusively dog hunts and loves it, it wouldn't be in his interest to lie about it. Please understand Lanse and Phil and Hokie, the last thing I want to see is an all out ban on dog hunting, I pay 1200$ a year to do it!! But I also love to bowhunt more than anything, it's a special time of year and it should not be violated by dog owners dumping dogs when they shouldn't be. Im sure still hunters and bowhunters brake laws, not arguing that, but it's kind of like my 9th grade students when I scold one for talking in class he will start saying yeh but Im not the only one talking......

Phil from Maine

Again hold the warden service accountable for what is going on.. For as far as your fishing buddy's story goes I would question it. I know of a used to be bear hunter that bragged how good his dogs were. How he had treed mountain lions up here and shot them to help save the deer herd and stuff like that. He was a story teller and would go very far to tell stories in order to get more hunters hunting with him as he was a Maine guide to boot. He would tell stories how a bear would corner his dogs and kill one of them yearly. The truth was he killed them to get attention to how great his dogs were at getting bears. As stated he used to be a bear hunter. You see your warden service has got to do it's job in order to control the problem hunters. Also for the recordI also bow hunt and enjoy it very much. When a group of bear hunters ran thier hounds by me it really didn't bother me to bad. A couple of hours later and a deer walked right by me. Sure it may have nerved the deer up a bit but they tend to settle back down shortly after they have gone by. I also only bow hunt from the ground and do not use tree stands so it is even harder in my style of hunting. We do not have nearly as many deer up here because of our winters but yet I still get 1 with the bow in my area which is off limits to shooting of does. This year however I am planning on doing something completely different in this area by taking a ferry to an island 18 miles off our coast to hunt maine's Expanded archery zone. By all the doe tags anyone could want for $12.00 each but the other cost factors are high. I will be doing that around the last week of September. Then it will be hunting my irish setters on birds for the next 2 months if I have any luck out on the island bow hunting. But to try and force laws on any form of hunting will also end up restricting your way of hunting as well. Placing hunters against hunters can be no good for no one and helps PETA to fight us all.

Vabowman

There are not enough wardens to stop it sadly. When I tell you that dog hunting is big business here believe me brother. I don't have an issue with dog hunting, I do it every year, my issue is dogs being run in the off season. It happens 365 days a year here. How are laws that are already in place and have been for a long time going to take my rights away. It's up to dog owners to stop the illegal activity. That's like saying there should never be a murder if the cops would just do their jobs. There are too many people in the world to stop it. People should be held responsible for their crimes.

daleh

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