Meeting Public Comments

Subcommittee meeting and times are as follows:

A bill for an act relating to entering private property by persons using dogs while fur harvesting or training dogs on fur-bearing animals, and providing penalties.(See HF 557.)

Subcommittee members: Jeneary-CH, Gerhold, Hall

Date: Monday, February 8, 2021

Time: 11:30 AM - 12:00 PM

Location: RM 103, Sup. Ct. Chamber

Names and comments are public records. Remaining information is considered a confidential record.

Comments Submitted:

02-02-2021

Kevin Karr

To the Honorable Committee MembersHello This HSB need to become law. Tax paying landowners are powerless without this bill! Without it we have no control over folks running dogs and wildlife on our property. We also, by default, are put at risk of injury claims and have to carry additional umbrella insurance policys . We have no control over these people running their dogs on our land, any responsible hunter should not oppose this bill. If they are asking permission and allowed by the landowner then all is well. Any other hunter has to ask landowner permission why should it be any different for the fur harvester. A trapper has to have permission as does a fisherman. I have had dogs turned out in my drive ways to run wildlife off my property. The dogs cause a ruckus with my own dog, which is trained to stay in the yard off the roads and off the neighbors property.We need this bill to become law.We talked about this problem last year and as I remember it a group of hunters showed up saying it was unfair to keep them off our property, its the antihunters trying to stop a long lived family tradition. Again this is not true most landowners are hunters themselves or allow others to hunt on their property.Respectfully,Kevin Karr

02-07-2021

James Woods

Regarding HSB 157, I feel that this bill is unnecessary. In my opinion, there are existing laws that, if enforced, would already cover any situation that this bill is trying to address. It seems to me that this bill is an attempt to eventually end all hunting with dogs in this state. A hunting dog is going to follow his game and no one can determine for sure where this trail will lead, especially when game animals are mating. Many times males will leave their home territory in search of a mate and its instincts are to return to its home territory if pursued by a hunting dog. Myself and most hunters I know have invested in GPS tracking equipment (many times totaling thousands of dollars) to monitor our dogs location in order to keep them away from area where we don't want them to be. But even then, the game and dogs can be across a section of land before you are able to get there and catch them before they enter another property where they may not be welcome. The people that I hunt with are quick to recover our dogs if they get where they are not wanted, but some times no matter how hard you try, it cannot be prevented. I can't speak for those people that I don't know, but if landowners are having problems, they should be able to be taken care of on a local basis and not affect all hunters. Thank you for your time to consider my thoughts.