To the Editor:
I am sorry I did not get back sooner to your paper after I read the June 19 letter a person submitted on the issue of legalizing bear hunts with dogs.
He had several reasons against the proposal.
I am an ex-pat New Yorker, a Yankee, that now lives in Virginia. I spend many weeks in the National Forest, where bear hunts regularly take place with dogs.
The principle objection to using dogs to hunt is that the “hunters” remain in vehicles. I have tended dogs that stumbled into my camp, hungry, thirsty and bear torn. The dogs are sometimes released for days at a time.
One hunter using dogs told me one such waif I took in had been mauled by bears no less than three times. No wonder she was content under my van.
The hunters have their dogs tagged with radio transmitters. Yet, it can take hours for them to reach the spot the dogs have treed, cornered or otherwise brought a bear to ground.
I do not care to debate the issue, but people should consider that many Vets are against the practice. This is because it inflicts serious wounds on the dogs, even death.
An interesting anecdote; I spoke to one dog hunter who told me his uncle had been in the IP lands for bear hunting with dogs, where it is legal; they are not allowed to kill the bear.
I can remember hearing the dogs in the back of trucks, as they traveled the State’s seasonal dirt road behind Mason Lake on their way to hunt.
The hunter told me his uncle had lost his dogs in one such hunt.
In one of those ‘world is too small’ moments, his uncle had been to my campsite near Silver Run in the Big Moose Plains. I remembered him looking for his dogs. He had a weak signal, but could not get to them. I had not seen them. I asked the nephew if his uncle ever found the dogs? He had not. He even rented a helicopter to fly over the area to locate them. But the choke simply would not let him get to them. He never saw them again.
Each dog can cost nearly a thousand dollars.
They certainly are not the only dogs that have been lost in the Plains. I know of at least one other couple from Vermont that lost their beloved pet when they let it run loose.
I am of two minds. I get why people are opposed to the hunt with dogs. It isn’t simply about freedoms and tradition; and since it is not a common practice to use dogs to hunt big game, where they are free to cut across people’s properties etc., I favor the small game bird dog hunting.
But I believe the bear hunt or even deer—which is also a sore point with some property owners in Virginia, because of trespassing issues and concerns about packs of dogs chasing deer through their back yards—seems to be more sensible.
There are better ways for the state to make money from hunting revenues.
If I was still a resident, I would prefer higher tag fees, but also I would want to see more stocking of some game animals.
I am not a New York resident, but I am a former NYS Hunters Safety Instructor, and this is just my personal opinion.
Sincerely Yours,
Terry Staub, SFC/ret
NYS resident of near 60 years, now a Yankee in VA
(As I tell my good bubba friends, the north will rise again.)
