Nothing is more irritating to sportsmen or clubs than to own or lease land for hunting and have unauthorized folks hunt that land, perhaps killing a trophy animal the landowner or lessees watched all summer, waiting for hunting season to arrive.
Threats and worse often occur during trespassing incidents. Irritation at trespassing grows out of the rights of property owners to control their own land — which few people other than socialists oppose.
But the problem in North Carolina is similar to other southern states and has been growing. The N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission and the state legislature receive complaints each year, many involving deer-dog hunters.
Let it be said not every dog hunter or club violates trespass laws, but even the N.C. Sporting Dog Association admits it occurs at times.
In early May, the N.C. Wildlife Resources Commission invited a member of the Georgia Department of Natural Resources’ Wildlife Resources Division to come to Raleigh and speak to dog hunters about how that state solved deer-dog/landowner conflicts.
Georgia basically requires written permission from landowners to hunt deer with dogs. Since 2003 when it passed that rule, not a single county has banned deer-dog hunting in the Peach State.
Meanwhile, in North Carolina, a few county commissioners each year ask the legislature to ban deer-dog hunting inside their boundaries. Orange County will ban dog hunting during this legislative session.
Joe and Henri McClees, who represent the NCSDA, correctly point out no law is worth its salt unless it can be enforced. They said state trespass laws encoded in General Statute 14 should be enough to keep trespassing at a minimum. Of course, that doesn’t happen, mainly because sheriff’s deputies are spread so thin and, in order to get a conviction, a landowner has to catch trespassers in the act. By the time a deputy arrives to investigate a complaint, violators often are long gone.
The NCSDA also said it opposes the Georgia solution because it would transfer the right to manage dog hunting from the state legislature to the commission. Currently, the N.C. General Assembly rules dog hunting, not the commission. It’s a cozy arrangement that’s been around for decades, once prohibiting foxes from being trapped and left for the singular pleasure of hound hunters.
Whether the commission wants to grab regulation of deer-dog hunting from the legislature is not known. We can surmise the Enforcement Division feels it has enough to do without adding to its responsibilities tracking down deer hounds and trespassing hunters.
However, no matter what happens, it’s probably better to be proactive and at least begin to think about the problem.
North Carolina’s demographics are changing rapidly as more people make the state their home, many of them unfamiliar with our hunting traditions, particularly with deer dogs.
Caswell County requires written permission to hunt on someone else’s land. Despite dog-hunter opposition, that law has worked well for years and reduced conflicts between landowners and deer-dog hunters.
Unless dog hunters start to police their own ranks more effectively, written permission is something worth considering to reduce conflicts.
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