Wildlife commissioners denounce HB 1249
State wildlife commissioners on Monday criticized a bill that passed the House of Representatives on Thursday which requires hunters to first get permission of a landowner before retrieving a lost hunting dog.
HB 1249 passed the state House of Representatives 80-11 on Thursday and now goes to the state Senate.
Commissioner Ed Abel of Oklahoma City, an avid coon hunter, said the bill threatens honest sportsmen with fines and possible jail sentences.
At the end of the monthly meeting of the Oklahoma Wildlife Commission, Abel asked his fellow commissioners to pass a resolution voicing their opposition to the bill and send it to each lawmaker in the state Legislature.
The commission chose not to vote on a resolution, fearing it might be a violation of the state’s open meeting laws since HB 1249 was not listed on the agenda for Monday’s meeting.
However, most commissioners agreed the bill is bad for Oklahoma sportsmen.
“If the real point (of the bill) is cattle rustling, there is no reason to include hunting dogs,” said Commissioner David Riggs of Sand Springs, who suggested an amendment to HB 1249 that would exclude hunting dogs from the legislation.
Authors of HB 1249 contend the measure is to crack down on cattle rustling, but Commissioner Harland Stonecipher of Centrahoma on Monday called that a lie.
“It’s really about hunting dogs,” said Stonecipher, a longtime houndsman.
Hunters presently have the right to retrieve their dogs when they have wandered on another person’s land. However, it would be considered trespassing under HB 1249.
Coon hunting is a deeply rooted tradition in Oklahoma. National competitions in coon hunting are often held in Oklahoma but that would end if HB 1249 becomes law, Abel said.
State wildlife commissioners discussed the possibility of calling a special meeting to address the legislation.
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Comments
Most coon hunters do not have deer dogs. We hunt Raccoon not deer. If our dogs run deer,we break them or get rid of them. Deer never tree. Our dogs take to much work to make a coon hound. If our dog gets on the wrong land. we should be able to get them back. we won`t hunt your land before we ask, but we should be able to pick up the dog and return him to our truck and be safe doing it.
TO: Rody Van Huss
First of all, your dumb. As an avid coonhunter I TRAIN my dogs to not run trash. They only run coons. So do your research next time before you start talking down about people.
I agree with Nick if you don’t have any idea about what your talking about SHUT UP!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s people like you that get bill’s passed like this FYI that would have to be one fast dog to be on a game cam behind a deer if u have such a pic ill give u my email and you can send it to me ill put it on my CoonHunters alliance page if its a fact As for the barking you may have herd someones rabbit dogs or you use it as a lam reason y you cant kill a deer?! lmao
I sympasize with the coon hunters but it really burns me to go out to my deer hunting spot only to find that they have had dogs running there all night and running deer OFF my property just by the commotion and lights. Hog hunters are worse and most of them are deer poachers anyway. I say stay out of places where you have no permission and if you cared anything about your dog you’d train him to come back when you leave. We have waay too many raccoons but I’ll thin them out during furbearer season with traps. Not a good idea to let your dogs run where there are traps anyway. The coonhunters I knew all my life would poach deer and shoot turkey off roosts any time they encountered them anyway. If you are a real sportsman, I commend you. There are lots of folks that use your sport for illegal activities and you should help get them caught and punished instead of griping about not getting to screw up everyone else’s hunting.
AS AN AVID HUNTER I WOULD LIKE TO SEE THIS PASSED.THE COON HUNTERS DOGS ARE CHASING MORE DEER THAN COONS.WE HAVE SEEN THEM AND HAVE TRAIL CAMERAS WITH PICTURES OF COON DOGS CHASING DEER.THE BARKING OF THEM CHASING WAS ALL WEEKEND DURING HUNTING HOURS FROM OCT 1 THRU JAN 15.IF THIS DOESN’T PASS,WHAT WOULD BE THE SOLUTION FROM THE COON HUNTERS?IT WOULD BE INTERESTING TO KNOW!