State to expand hunting dog regulation

[Dan Hildebran]

The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission
(F.W.C.), in April, voted to expand a pilot program
that requires hunters to register their dogs with the
state.

Last year, the F.W.C. ran a pilot program in Northwest
Florida that required the owners of any dog used to
hunt deer on private property to register and tag the
animal. The registration application required dog
owners to supply the F.W.C. with a map of the land the
dog would be used on, and written permission from the
land owner. The rule also required dog owners to
affix a F.W.C. registration number to their animals,
and any dog owner who failed to comply with the rule
could have been issued a citation. Hunters could also
have been ticketed if their dogs wondered off the
property specified on the registration application.

The state agency began the program last year in an
effort to reduce conflicts between hunters and land
owners. According to a study by the agency's staff,
the program worked. The F.W.C. report concluded that
during the 2004-2005 hunting season in the Northwest
Region, there were only 87 deer-dog hunting
complaints, down 36 percent from 137 during to the
2003-04 hunting season. And only five of the 87
complaints were associated with registered deer-dog
hunting clubs. In contrast, a review of the complaint
data for the North Central and Northeast regions,
which did not have such a program, did not show a
decrease in complaints.


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