What gives with such shabby treatment toward man’s best friend?
After a week of sunshine, the field made muddy by heavy spring rains transformed the clover and alfalfa into a thick sea of green. There were lots of wildflowers, and the few I could identify—primrose, poppies, bluebells and bell heather—added bursts of yellow, burnt orange, lavender and pink. A rooster pheasant walked through it all, and surfaced occasionally to offer his gaudy red, white, blue and green head against the muted color palate as if it were a competition of sorts. He looked warily at me as if he thought it were hunting season when it was not. Now was fishing season, and my focus was on that massive brown trout sipping mayflies below the limestone bridge on the River Wye.
What the bird ought to have concerned himself with lurked in the perimeter. A mature red fox stalked his way through the grass. His coat was magnificent, an indication that he regularly had Sunday roast at the Pheasant Inn. That fox was happy now, but that would change come fall when he’d be the one pursued, but this time by Peak District riders wearing Ratcatchers and tan jodhpurs. The riders would climb aboard thoroughbreds, Irish sport horses and other warmbloods to chase him in a manner identical to the way their ancestors chased his ancestors all the way back to the hunt’s 1848 beginning. I never saw if the fox got the game, for my focus was on the browning. That said, the irony of a red fox stalking his way through a patch of foxglove was not lost on me.
As of today, England’s dog rules are unchanged, but they are no less threatened indeed. A changing ethos, an anti-hunting zeitgeist, is looming much larger than ever before. The first chink in the armor came in October 2023 with the passing of the Scottish “Hunting with Dogs Act 2023.” While the focus is on packs of dogs used to chase game—as in hounds chasing a fox—the ramifications can spill over into other disciplines.
The Hunting with Dogs Act 2023 “is truly a truly historic milestone for wildlife protection in Scotland,” said Gillian Martin, the environment minister who was bullish about the bill. “This law finally closes the loopholes that have allowed the archaic practice of hunting wild animals with packs of dogs to persist in our country for over twenty years. It has taken us almost a decade to get to this point. In that time the sheer volume of responses to our consultations have shown us just how concerned people still are about foxhunting in Scotland. We listened, and we have delivered. We have succeeded in crafting a law that strikes a balance–one which rightly bans barbaric hunting methods, but which still allows farmers and land managers to undertake legitimate wildlife management.”
The new law requires hunters to secure a license to use more than two dogs to flush game. Terriers can be used to reduce rodents such as mice or rats, but no dogs can be used to run rabbits. Two or more dogs could be used to flush gamebirds when rough shooting, but they can’t work together. Cutting loose an English cocker to flush a brace of setters pointing a grouse would be illegal.
Thankfully, Brian Lynn, the vice president of communications and marketing for the Sportsmen’s Alliance, has a staff dedicated to keeping up with the increased volume of bills oriented at gun dogs. “At first, dog laws often seem ‘reasonable’ to many people,” he said, “but whether they’re well intentioned or not, often they aren’t. The impact to sporting dog owners always needs to be understood and their voice must be represented. Simple leash laws can turn a trainer or field trialer using a stake-out chain into a criminal, while requirements and licenses for breeding can make it economically impossible to produce well-bred, quality litters, which will choke off the good genetics found throughout entire bloodlines. We see hundreds of these bills every year across the nation, and even in hunter-friendly states such as Texas and Tennessee.”
In Florida, Senator Joe Gruters has introduced legislation that would unfairly penalize hunting dog owners. Senate Bill 522 would make it a first-degree misdemeanor to leave a dog outside and unattended in temperatures below 32 degrees, even if the animal is in a kennel or has access to other outdoor shelters. Hunting dogs often perform in temperatures below 32 degrees. The provisions in these types of bills are harmful to hunting dogs because they will prevent them from becoming acclimated to colder temperatures that occur during hunting seasons. The bill was indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration.
In Delaware, a newly introduced bill would fine people whose dogs bark for more than 15 minutes. While many city dwellers might sympathize with the legislation, House Bill 378 is trouble for sporting-dog kennels, which are most often located in rural areas, because the bill makes no exceptions for whether the barking occurs in metropolitan areas, in the country or even while hunting. Say goodbye to a pack of baying beagles. HB 378 would fine a dog owner $100 for a first offense, $200 for a second offense and $300 for each offense thereafter, and the police department would be required to enforce the law. But there are a few exemptions. One is for dogs barking at intruders and the other is for dogs provoked into barking. This bill was passed and went into effect on January 1, 2024.
In New Hampshire, HB 1389 was a virtual copycat proposal of Florida’s Senate Bill 522 which would make it a crime to leave a dog outside and unattended for more than 30 minutes, unless the dog has access to a shelter built to exacting building specs. The bill would also make it a crime to leave a dog outside for more than 15 minutes when the temperature is below 32 degrees, even if a shelter is provided. That means that keeping a string of bird dogs on a chain gang at a field trial is illegal. Fortunately, this bill was defeated.
Those three bills, among others in a variety of states, were defeated thanks to efforts of groups such as Sportsmen’s Alliance. But a new Center for Disease Control (CDC) ruling that went into effect on August 1, 2024, affects travel to and from Canada, a country well known to upland and waterfowl hunters. The CDC states that “dogs entering or returning to the United States that have been only in dog rabies-free or low-risk countries in the past six months must meet the following requirements: be healthy and complete the CDC Dog Import Form.” In addition, dogs must be at least six months old at time of entry or return to the U.S. and they must have a microchip that can be detected with a universal scanner.
The purpose of that law is preventing the introduction of dog-maintained rabies virus variants into the United States. “The rule is arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act, especially as it relates to Canada,” said Michael Jean, litigation counsel at Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation. “The purpose of the rule is to prevent the introduction of dog-maintained rabies virus variant into the country. But CDC openly acknowledges that the rabies variant does not exist in Canada.” Quite evidently other issues are at play.
Once upon a time we used to focus on breeding, training and hunting our dogs. But the current trend and sheer volume of proposed dog legislation politicizes us worldwide. I’m not going to let man’s best friend be treated in such a shabby way. Neither will Brian Lynn. We’ll all just have to work at it, and we’ll be like Fido, a common dog’s name. Afterall, Fido comes from fidelity.