Missouri judge unleashes dogs for deer hunting
A circuit judge in southeast Missouri has ruled that the Missouri Department of Conservation’s regulations regarding the use of vehicles and dogs to hunt deer are unconstitutional.
As reported in the Doniphan Prospect News and the Southeast Missourian, Circuit Judge Robert Smith directed the department “to no longer enforce the above described regulations as written.”
Judge Smith said that the regulations are too vaguely written, and “that people of ordinary intelligence must necessarily guess at their meaning.”
Seriously?
The Missouri Code of State Regulations, Title 3, chapter 10-7.410(1)(A) says : “No person shall pursue, take, attempt to take, drive, or molest wildlife from or with a motor-driven air, land, or water conveyance at any time.” (an exception is made for bots not under motor power.)
3 CSR 10- 10-7.431(6) says: Deer may not be hunted, pursued, taken or killed: C) With the aid of a motor-driven land conveyance or aircraft, or (D) With the aid of dogs, in use or possession.
I am not a lawyer, (we do have one who blogs for RHT, perhaps he’ll chime in) but I am of ordinary intelligence (some may argue that point). Please allow me to interpret: You can’t use your truck or your dog to hunt deer.
The story describes several Missouri Department of Conservation agents each testifying with different understandings of the law, which is likely what led the judge to rule that the wording is vague.
The department has 30 days to file an appeal of the ruling.
The story said that “the suit, filed in February by Neil Turner and Bobby ‘Shannon’ Jones both of Ripley County, is a big win for hunters across the state, according to Jones’s attorney Devin Kirby.”
A big win? I don’t think so.
The constitutionality of the regulation aside, I just can’t come to terms with deer dogging. It seems unsporting to me. It eliminates the need for the hunter to be a patient woodsman and student of his game, to spend unnerving hours waiting, watching, listening. The barking dogs break the silence of the hunt:
Perhaps I am missing something. I have no problem with using dogs for rabbits, raccoons, pheasants and quail. In some states hunters use dogs to hunt bears and cougars. Deer dogging is legal in some states, mostly in the south.
While hunting small game with dogs, the chase is generally contained to a small area and the dogs are within control, either by leash, electronic collar or audible commands. It’s pretty easy to avoid trespassing issues.
But deer run fast and far when being pursued. Deer can pass property lines legally, but hunters cannot. So what about the dogs? They are an extension of the hunter, part of a team of domesticated mammals pursuing wild game. Doesn’t allowing dogs to chase deer through private property constitute trespassing?
I welcome your thoughts.
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As an avid bow hunter from Illinois I see a real problem with “Dog Hunting” for Whitetail Deer. I would have to agree with you on a few things here. First, Dogs are a great hunting tool for Pheasants, Quail, Rabbits, Ducks, and Geese and for the southern states, Wild Hogs. Not only do dogs locate game for hunters, they also up the hunters percentages of recovering their game quickly and humanely. For waterfowlers in general, dogs my be the only means to recovering cripple fowl in waters not suitable for boats or wading.
When it comes to chasing down Whitetail Deer with the use of dogs, my stomach starts to turn. As you wrote, Dogs do not have the knowledge to stop at property lines, fences, or lakes and streams. I myself am a dog lover and would never harm a dog that wasn’t threatening me or my families lives. But unfortunately, there are many outdoors men (hunters) who don’t value a dogs life as I do. I have a gut feeling many dogs won’t be returning home with their masters after a day of chasing deer. Truthfully, I couldn’t blame a guy if he’s sitting in his tree stand, that he’s scouted, trimmed out, and spent countless hours in waiting for that monster buck to walk by and out of nowhere comes a pack of dogs taring through his property…..got a feeling a dog or two might find themselves in his crosshairs!! If fact dogs, mainly Beagles, will run deer literally to death. Deer are very fast as most of us know, but the sheer stamina of a seasoned tracking hound will well out last a deer. These “Deer Dogs” are going to kill more deer than anyone could imagine. People will train them to track deer, they will be penned up in fences outside, and they will from time to time get loose. They will then run deer day and night until they are found, shot, or starve to death in the wild. To me it just doesn’t bring a pretty image of hunting and outdoors into my mind.
Now on to hunting form a truck window. What a JOKE!!! I have a hard time justifying the use of “Truck Hunting” even for the excessively handicapped, but to each state their own. The only context discharging a firearm from a vehicle should fall under, in a states Rules & Regulations handbook, is the Illegal or Poaching section!! Shooting deer from a vehicle is not hunting in 99.9% of “Hunters” minds. On another note, here in Illinois, I would however like to see coyote hunting from vehicles put into practice. Yes there would have to be guidelines and regulations, but something has to be done here to slim their numbers down. They are everywhere and our Deer, Pheasants, and Rabbits have paid a dear price because of them.
I’ll wrap this up here by saying, What is Missouri thinking?? Don’t ruin your deer herds because of mumbo jumbo lingo in the Rules & Regulations Handbook. Real Hunters will continue to hunt legally and ethically. All this over turn of the law did was open the door for poachers and people who do not value deer. They will shoot record book bucks, sell their racks and most likely leave the meat to rot way and waste. Explain to me the benefit Missouri will receive from this ruling?? None, bot an ounce will be gained for hunters, the state, or wildlife, because believe me, your Whitetail Deer are not going to be the only animals being poached form truck windows and nor will they be the only game being taken from the use of tracking dogs in Missouri!!