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Critic blames crackdown on hunting bears with dogs
by VDC staff
Thanks to a tip from the public, Vermont Fish & Wildlife officials have confirmed that a suspect has been apprehended in connection with the illegal killing and dumping of a black bear in the Trout River.
The initial report came in on Wednesday, July 23, when game wardens responded to a call about a deceased bear discovered in the water near the intersection of Route 118 and Dreamers Road in Montgomery. Upon arrival, wardens found evidence that the bear had been shot and deliberately dumped—an apparent violation of Vermont wildlife laws.
The Department of Fish & Wildlife immediately launched an investigation and asked for the public’s assistance, directing community members to submit any relevant information through its Operation Game Thief anonymous tip line.
By Friday, July 25, officials received a credible tip from a member of the community, which led to the swift identification and apprehension of a suspect. The name of the individual and further case details have not yet been released, pending formal charges.
In a public statement, the department expressed gratitude for the outpouring of support:
“Thanks to a tip from the community, a suspect was apprehended. Thank you to everyone who played a part in helping bring this to a close in record time. Your tips, your voices, and your support made all the difference.”
Authorities emphasize that wildlife crimes are taken seriously and encourage the public to continue reporting suspicious activity through the Operation Game Thief hotline at 1-800-752-5378.
The report of the arrest of the suspect was reported on the Vermont Game Wardens’ Association Facebook Page. Among the 100+ comments beneath the post were pleas to 1) not blame the bears and 2) fully restore the practice of hunting bears with dogs.
“The bears are not the problem. It’s how humans interact with them that’s the problem. Punishing bears for acting like a bear is the wrong approach. We have bears frequently at our house. We take reasonable precautions to minimize the number of times they occur. And occasionally I have to use 12 gauge rubber slugs. Those speak the language bears understand,” one commenter said.
Another commenter said, “The bear population gets bigger and bigger every year, but they’ve made it hard for people to run the hounds so the bear population is gonna continue to grow and then they’re gonna start eating lots more things.’
Taking bears with the use of hunting dogs has been a legislative tug-of-war in recent years between sportsmen and animal rights’ groups. At present, according to eregulations.com, “Any person hunting, pursuing, harvesting, or in any manner involved in the taking of a black bear with the use of dogs must hold a valid Vermont Big Game Hunting License, use only department-registered dogs and have purchased a valid bear tag. In addition, the person hunting, pursuing, harvesting, or in any manner involved in the taking of a black bear with the use of dogs must hold a valid bear dog permit or accompany a bear dog permit holder. The license and permit are also required for training dogs to pursue bear.’
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Categories: Animals, Public Safety
Why isn’t the person that did this named? 😡😡
Thank you for bringing attention to this poor bear who was clearly murdered for no reason! That said, the guy quoted, talking about hound hunting, messes up the article as he is a bad source. Terrifying and killing bears is not the answer to the problem either.
What, pray tell, is the answer? What would you do? Have everyone move to the city? That way all wild animals could have their god given natural habitat to themselves.
Don’t live in the Country if you don’t like Country Ways! I don’t think this had anything to do with hunting with Dogs anyway. It was just some POS random Poacher! Needs to be locked up! 😡
Why not? Isn’t THAT pretty much what a number essentially feel they themselves are entitled to? Animal lovers & advocates should move elsewhere. Anyone who relocated to VT within the last 50 or so years? Move elsewhere. Americans with different philosophical views on certain topics? Move elsewhere.
The fact is this was an ILLEGAL act. The fact is that BOTH humans and animals were created by God and therefore possess the right to life & to dignity through His Hand of creation. The fact is that “woodland creatures” have the intrinsic right to live in those very woods! And this act was not merely illegal, but senseless, cruel, inhumane, and thereby Godless because it bestowed nothing good, right, or necessary – merely destruction & desecration.
This incident had nothing to do with using dogs to hunt bears.
Having grown up in Vermont fairly close to the Canadian border, I can tell you times have changed, as they have in many of our life experiences. Dogs ran loose, until farmland started to be converted to development uses; either living, commercial, industrial, retail, malls, you name it, it once was farm area. Every farmer had a dog or two. Some were hunting dogs, some were cow dogs, some were just plain pets. NONE were tied unless they were a hazard to people who might visit the farm, such as milk haulers, feed trucks from Eastern States, Wirthmore, Blue Seal, T J McGovern,
Elmore, E W Bailey, Ide’s, Ralston Purina…. any of those ring a bell?
Many of the hunting dogs and cow dogs knew when bears were approaching and they would head for the perimeters of the farm. Over time they knew where the cattle were being pastured, and that was their territory. They kept the bears from destroying
animals kept to earn a living.
More than once I have attemp0ted to explain this to VT Wardens, and they either do not want to hear it, or are in very wrongful disbelief.
We had no bears on our back steps or porches, or anywhere near. Most dogs would bark when bears were near and that would bring out neighboring dogs like you would not believe. No bears ever in our area were killed by dogs or even touched. But they most always never came back, either.
This my friends, is The Rest of The Story……Like Paul Harvey would tell.