November 4, 2015
The Protecting Native Forests and Wildlife Subcommittee of the Sierra Club-John Muir Chapter is conducting a survey to determine the frequency and severity of hounding-related experiences you may have encountered where you reside or vacation.
We have received many accounts of adverse incidents with hunting hounds, or hound handlers, including first hand accounts of trespassing, property damage and injury to people and pets caused by hunting hounds, who typically run out of sight of their handlers, often for hours.
In investigating the WDNR data base for complaints involving hunting hounds, we have been told that "no such data base exists" because of "under-staffing." A Freedom of Information Act request for any related data has been filed.
Those who experience adverse incidents with hunting hounds regularly report being intimidated, by hound handlers and law enforcement officers, into refraining from filing formal complaints. We have also received accounts of inappropriate responses to complaints on the part of law enforcement personnel. Citizens report being told that hunting hounds may run on private property without landowner permission; that bear hunters' trucks may block access to roads and driveways in the course of a hunt; and that nothing can be done about a pet injured by hunting hounds.
We also receive many accounts from non-hunters who feel they may not access public lands during hound hunting and training seasons, which make up most of the year in Wisconsin, for fear of their own safety and the safety of their children and pets.
Additionally, while state regulations prohibit the physical contact of hunting hounds and wildlife, we receive many credible accounts that contact regularly does occur. Please include any such sightings in your report.
The Protecting Native Forests and Wildlife committee have compiled this survey to provide a safe vehicle to record and collect reports specifically of adverse or injurious, unpleasant or unwelcome incidents involving hunting hounds in Wisconsin, Michigan, or other states where hounds are used to pursue and harry wildlife, in order to guage the prevalence of such incidents. You do not need to be a land owner. You may file a report on another's behalf. Anonymity of respondents will be protected.
Take the survey here: http://tinyurl.com/houndingsurvey