Serving sportsmen, ranchers, farmers, timberland managers and others who own or lease rural land:

• We support the right of land owners and lease holders to use and manage their land without disruption from trespassing deer dogs and other nuisances.
• We support implementation of a three-pronged strategy put forth by USFS that includes enhanced regulations assuring safety, accountability and suitability for dog-deer hunting on National Forests in Mississippi.
  
• We support a state-wide permit system for dog-deer hunting on all private lands in MS that includes minimum acres to run deer dogs, punative consequences for deer-dog trespass when they get off the permitted property, and permit revocation for habitual offenders.
  (See our proposed permit system for private lands.)
  
• We support the use of dogs to hunt squirrel, coon, rabbit, duck, geese, quail, hogs, and other small game.

Mission Statement:

This organization is organized exclusively for protection and promotion of rural landowner and leaseholder rights to enjoy their land as they see fit.

Does dog-deer hunting have an image problem?

It is a unique dog sport unlike other dog-hunting sports because it:

• requires very large acreage to minimize nuisance to others.
• can result in dangerous confrontations between dog-deer hunters and others.
• often results in ruined still hunts because of trespassing deer dogs.
• is perceived by some as a motorized sport.
• is considered by some to be an electronic roundup because tracking collars on dogs send location data to hunters in their trucks so they can position themselves to head the deer off.

Negative consequences associated with dog-deer hunting

• Road hunting is associated with dog-deer hunting. (Sullivan and Swoope, 2005)
• Crippling losses are higher for dog-deer hunting than with still hunting. (Campo, et al., 1987; Spencer, G., 1986)
  
• It is a costly headache for law enforcement.

Did you know?

• Deer-dog trespassing is a problem that is not unique to Mississippi.
• Only nine states in the USA allow the use of dogs to hunt Whitetail deer; even in those states, some areas are closed to dog-deer hunting.
• There are 155 national forests in the USA. Of those, 127 (81%) are closed to dog-deer hunting for Whitetail deer.
• Mississippi has six national forests. There are some areas in all six forests that are closed to dog-deer hunting.

HNF permit system info

Excerpt pertaining to HNF permit system