Fire up your four-wheelers and let the dogs off the leash! A judge in Poplar Bluff has ruled that Missouri Department of Conservation regulations banning the use of packs of dogs to drive deer toward hunting stands are too vague to enforce.
But wait, there's more good news for lazy hunters. Judge Robert Smith also said that a law banning the use of "land conveyance" vehicles to pursue deer also isn't enforceable. This marks a major victory for deer-dogging enthusiasts and for all hunters who just don't want to work hard for the kill.
For those of you uninitiated in the world of deer-dogging, it's a method of "hunting" in which the "hunter" sets lose a pack a dogs to chase deer toward the "hunter" who is positioned in a deer stand, where the "hunter" shoots the fleeing deer. It's banned in 39 states for several reasons including the dogs' inability to respect private property and because it makes life difficult for regular hunters.
Smith made his ruling after two hunters arrested in a Missouri Department of Conservation sting operation brought a lawsuit against the MDC. The Doniphan Prospect-News reports Neil Turner and Bobby Jones claimed that the dog hunting restriction and a law banning the use of vehicles were too ambiguous. Smith agreed, writing, "the regulations and rules are vague, overly broad, indefinite, and fail to establish sufficient standards so that people of ordinary intelligence must necessarily guess at their meaning."
Hmm ... let's take a look at the wording of the laws and answer the burning question: Are you smarter than a deer-dogger? Conservation Department rule 10-7.431 says, "Deer may not be hunted, pursued, taken or killed: ... With the aid of a motor-driven land conveyance or aircraft." Or, the law goes on, "With the aid of dogs, in use or possession." Yeah, it doesn't seem like there is a lot of gray area there.
Smith, however, saw it differently. He bought the argument that the motor vehicle law could be interpreted as outlawing a hunter driving from home to the hunting site. And, as the Prospect-News points out, "The regulation also uses 'dogs' in the plural sense, thus there is [the] question of whether a hunter can use one dog or if a hunting group could use one dog." Shrewd.
Jim Low, the news services coordinator for the MDC, says deer-dogging isn't sporting and it hasn't been allowed in Missouri since before the department even existed. The MDC has 30 days to appeal the ruling and take the case to the state supreme court.
If you're curious to see deer-dogging in action and why it's disliked by legitimate hunters and anti-hunting advocates alike, observe (don't watch if the sight of animal blood upsets you):
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This is unacceptable. Missouri is a battleground - a border state between idiots who cannot accept this is the year 2010 - puppy mills, factory farms, poaching, dog fighting, - this is absolutely wrong and this "judge " should be disbarred as incompetant.
Who would move a business here?
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