Dog Hunting Declining Across the South East?
October 31, 2009
Deer in thick brush can be hard to hunt across parts of the south Hounds are used to push the deer.
I’ll admit that I’ve never hunted deer with dogs but I’m hopefully going to get out on a dog hunt this season and see what it is all about. In the local newspaper this week Fred Bonner talks about the decline of this sport. This is the second article I’ve seen this season about this topic and it is sad to see a local cultural hunting tradition go by the wayside and the poor economy seems to be hasting its demise.
For the deer hunters who chose to have their hounds chase the deer the conditions couldn’t have been more ideal. It was damp enough that the deer’s scent hung close to the ground and it was cool enough to make it comfortable for both the hunters and the dogs.
That’s why I was surprised to find relatively few deer hunters out there with their dogs on the opening day of the season. Ordinarily we’d see truck after truck loaded with dog boxes, two-way radio antennas, tracking antennas and elevated stands lining the roads in the more rural areas Down east. I started to wonder just what was wrong here.
He goes on a bit later in the article to point out some of the pressures on this sport.
The national economy is playing a large part in having a change in the way deer hunters carry out their sport. This seems to be particularly true in the case of the deer hunters who choose to hunt with the aid of dogs.
Dog owners who formerly owned several trained deer hounds found the price of keeping these dogs was getting really expensive. Between the price of dog food and the medications that keep the dog healthy the hunters simply found themselves in a financial pinch. When it comes down to a choice between feeding and keeping healthy their families versus several large hunting dogs, the families won out.
Dog hunting is a long standing tradition in this part of the country and it would be a shame if that tradition was to be lost. Even hunters like myself who don’t use hounds to hunt deer should tread lightly as dog hunters get squeezed out because we could be next. I realize that there are issues around the use of hounds. Most often conflict arises when the dogs get off the land they are suppose to be on and run on land they are not suppose to be. Unfortunately the hunters causing the conflicts are often the ones that draw the most attention and thus cause negative prejudices against this hunting tradition.
Read the whole article Fred Bonner wrote and see if you can learn a little bit about this tradition. I hope to get out an experience a hound hunt this season and I’ll report back here on my experience.
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I have never hunted deer with dogs before and to be honest I can’t understand why somebody would. To me it sounds like cheating, letting the dog do all the work sniffing them out and running them down.
I am trying to keep an open mind about it and certainly not trying to start anything by any means but I just do not see the sport in it.
If hunters have to use dogs to get their deer than go for it, I will put in the time and do it the way I feel is the most gratifying and the most honest (in my opinion).