deer dog rules LITTLE ROCK USA
May 27th, 2005 by Administrator
No changes made in deer dog rules LITTLE ROCK – Changes in Arkansas rules for hunting deer with dogs didn’t get out of the kennel Thursday.
The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission, which had studied and wrangled over the perennially thorny issue for months, greeted the proposals with silence. When chairman Forest Wood of Flippin asked for a motion, no one spoke.
The result is deer dog rules for 2005-06 will be the same as last hunting season.
Early this year, several people told the commission of abuses by hunters using dogs. The complaints included shots being fired toward people on their own land from public roads, and a man was assaulted when he objected to deer dogs on his property.
The AGFC staff had proposed a permit system for using dogs in deer season in two North Arkansas deer zones, 6 and 8. Another proposal was for opening a portion of Zone 1 in Northwest Arkansas to dogs after the first three days of modern gun deer season. This came through the urging of state Rep. Roy Ragland, R-Marshall, although Zone 1 has been closed to deer dogs for years.
“There just wasn’t a clear direction for the commissioners. They were divided among themselves on this,” AGFC director Scott Henderson said after Thursday’s meeting. “But they had already increased the penalties (for illegal hunting from roads and other violations) a whole lot.”
Commissioner Sheffield Nelson of Little Rock said after the meeting, “We did not have clear input from the hunters, from our staff and from ourselves. We were getting feedback from about five different directions. As far as I’m concerned, this issue is closed now.”
Dogs are not allowed for deer hunting in the modern gun season across extreme northern Arkansas and in the agricultural northeast and eastern parts of the state. No-dog zones are 1, 2, 3, 4, 4A, 5, 5A, 9 and 16. Dogs are not allowed during archery and muzzle-loading deer seasons and the three-day Christmas Holiday modern gun hunt anywhere in the state.
The incidents of abuses reported to the commissioners earlier this year were from Cleburne, White and Faulkner counties in Zone 8 and Searcy County in Zone 6.
Henderson said increased law enforcement efforts are planned for the upcoming season in these areas.
Nelson said, “This is more of a safety issue than a trespassing issue. Safety has to come first.”
Corey Gray, AGFC’s deer program coordinator, reported that a total of 131,457 deer were checked by hunters last season, a 22 percent increase over the previous year. “This increase is due a lot to the increased doe regulations we had last year,” he said.
The number of bucks checked was up by 10 percent, the number of does checked up by 46 percent, and the number of button bucks (young deer) was up by 15 percent, Gray said.
The commissioners approved an extensive reworking of rules for captive wildlife, some of which were needed to coincide with new state laws on the keeping of wild animals like lions and tigers.
Some of the changes were in semantics, like the replacing of “translocation” permits with “importation” permits.
In other action, the commissioners:
-Ratified Henderson’s emergency order to prohibit harassing or calling with mechanical devices of the ivory-billed woodpecker. The order is for 120 days, and future action may be taken.
-Ratified Henderson’s emergency order allowing trout to be kept in the catch-and-release trout zone just below Narrows Dam in Pike County. Work on the dam will prevent coldwater releases from the dam, meaning trout can’t survive in warm weather. Anglers can keep trout they catch up to the daily limit in this area, and this order is also for 120 days.
By Joe Mosby
Arkansas News Correspondent