AR-News: (FL - US) Dog hunters at odds with landowners

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   Posted on Sun, May. 16, 2004 
  

Dog hunters at odds with landowners

Some pushing for stricter regulations

By Faith Ford

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS


PANAMA CITY - For years, Florida hunters have used dogs to hunt deer. It's a tradition brought here by early settlers from England and passed down through generations.

Hunters let hounds loose on seemingly endless tracts of woodland too thick for humans to traverse without scaring off the deer.

But present-day dog hunters are facing an awkward stage. As Florida's population grows and houses multiply, dog hunters are literally losing ground. The situation has rural landowners and still hunters, who want dog hunters off their land, clashing with dog hunters. Some landowners say they have faced intimidation - including death threats, nails in their driveways and arson - from dog hunters.

Still hunters spend hours waiting for a deer to come to food plots they set out. One hound racing through a still hunter's property can ruin a day's hunt.

In contrast, dog hunters use a variety of hounds - from blue ticks to beagles - to track deer. Hunters release the dogs when a deer track is found and give them a command to find the deer. Shooters then usually travel by pickup truck to where they expect the deer to run.

"It's a mixture of NASCAR, electronic communications, high-powered vehicles, guns and dead animals, that's what it's become," said John Daniel, who enjoyed dog hunting as a kid in North Florida and is now pushing for stricter regulations.

While still hunters easily can hunt on less than 1,000 acres, dog hunting requires more land in many cases.

"Dog hunting is suffering from the same thing the bears have and the Indians before the bears," said Rusty McKeithen, president of Florida Dog Hunters and Sportsmen's Association. "We're running out of places."

Tightening the laws

Maj. Dave Pridgen, of the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, said when hunters try to run dogs without enough property, their hounds tend to run off that property and onto neighboring lands.

The wildlife commission, with help from an advisory group that includes landowners and dog hunters, is considering proposals to put more muscle into current regulations. A recent draft primarily would require that dog hunters have a permit tied to their hunting property and that dogs and vehicles be easily identified with numbers.

Under current rules, landowners must see dogs chasing a deer and catch them on their property to prosecute a hunter. The proposed identification would eliminate the need to physically catch the dogs.

Nick Wiley, chief of the commission's Bureau of Wildlife Management, said the idea behind the permits is to identify hunters who violate rules and weed them out. Permits for hunting clubs with a yet-to-be-determined number of violations would be revoked under the commission's proposal.

A pilot project may be put in place as early as this hunting season in Washington, Jackson and Gadsden counties. Public meetings to discuss the proposed regulations are set for May 26 in Lake City and May 27 in Marianna. Wiley expects commissioners to discuss the regulations June 9-11 in Marco Island and vote July 15-16 in Tallahassee.

Florida and Mississippi are the only states that allow dog hunting in all their counties, although most of Florida's dog hunting is concentrated in North Florida.

"Dog hunting has been a strong tradition in Florida," Wiley said. "We really would prefer to try to find a way to solve this so that everyone kind of wins."

But landowners such as Daniel accuse some dog hunters of ignoring the law.

Daniel and his wife, Barbara, blame dog hunters for a fire that destroyed a home on their Jackson County property in March 2001. It was ruled arson, but no suspects were apprehended. Signs still are posted around their property advertising a $10,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

After being contacted by the Daniels' attorney, three of four timber companies that leased nearby land to dog hunters pulled their leases this year. Fires were set on the Daniel and three timber company properties the same day, Daniel said. No suspects have been caught.

Howard Kent also blames dog hunters for arson on his property. After the second prosecution of the same dog hunter for violating state wildlife regulations, the former home of Kent's grandmother in Washington County was burned to the ground in April 2003. No suspects have been arrested.

"It's a nightmare. It's unbelievable that it's going on," Kent said. "It's a degree of intimidation that allows people to do what they want to do, and landowners to a big extent are afraid."

Kent continues to pursue hunters who run their dogs on his property and has contacted, through his attorney, the landowner who leases to them. He also has banded with other owners with similar grievances.

McKeithen said he understands there are some bad apples among Florida's dog hunters. He's working with state wildlife officials to create regulations that still and dog hunters can live with.

"The bad guys really magnify the problem we have," he said. "If they don't want to follow the rules, to respect other people's property, we'd just as soon they do something else like bowling or something."