Dogs running deer in Cherokee

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Chickencoop96

Chickencoop96

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704
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Englewood, TN
Last weekend of this past rifle hunt for deer in South Cherokee I had a new experience in the woods. three pit bulls with no collars on ran a massive buck off of my spot and ruined my hunt. He was about to step into my shooting lane before he stopped to look behind him and before I knew it he was running full sprint. He went past me like a bat outta hell and I couldn't pull the rifle up and get him in my scope quick enough. Then them dogs followed right behind him. This happened to me the opening weekend in the same spot with a spike, same three dogs. Is there something that can legally be done? Will a game warden be able to help? Need opinions.
 
Had the same problem on my lease. I found out who the owner was and went and talked with him and he said kick rocks. I'm not sure what can be done legally. It is very frustrating.
 
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Ocoee Ridge Runner said:
Had the same problem on my lease. I found out who the owner was and went and talked with him and he said kick rocks. I'm not sure what can be done legally. It is very frustrating.
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Sue for damages. Seriously. You've already had a talk and it failed. Now have your lawyer send a cease & desist. That'll most likely do the trick. But if it doesn't then sue for the cost of the lease and any other monies you spent to hunt the place. Those are provable damages that the dog owner is responsible for. It will absolutely work or else you'll get paid, and the dog doesn't get hurt. A petty PIA I know but other than illegally killing the dog it's the most effective way to remedy the problem.
 
Ocoee Ridge Runner said:
Had the same problem on my lease. I found out who the owner was and went and talked with him and he said kick rocks. I'm not sure what can be done legally. It is very frustrating.
Click to expand...
I've had to much experience. The only legal way is to hold onto the dog until LE shows up and if he's being mean kill it. Every piece of land I've hunted has dogs roaming. I had 6 come by me last week on private. I won't outright kill a dog unless it's being vicious, I've had to kill a couple.

Unfortunately this is a massive problem everywhere. People only follow what laws they feel like. There is a leash law in TN nobody cares, then again nobody cares about anything anymore
 
tntrkkllr said:
Shoot the dogs and solve the problem. No collar, no home - wild animal and I'm sure a bunch of people will disagree with me. But would you like to be walking in to your spot and have 3 pit bulls chasing you?
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That's an option but if they prove you did you're going to spend going to jail and spend money getting out.
Funny story about stray dogs, we had a hunter swear up and down he had seen a bear , we all laughed till we seen the big black & hairy chow and realized that was what he thought was the bear made us laugh more.
 
If the owners care about the dogs and you can catch them safely, turn them in to a humane society a few towns away - enough so it's a PITA for the owner to get them and they may have to pay to get them back. If the owner doesn't care, not much you can do if you don't want to kill them. I guess you could shoot them with bird shot, or a bb/pellet gun.
 
I'm having the same problem. Got a new neighbor and suddenly 6 dogs started showing up on my trail-cameras daily. The are chasing deer and running every inch of my place. All of the dogs are wearing orange collars, which means the owner knows they are running onto neighbors' properties (if they stayed on the owner's property they wouldn't need orange collars to keep from getting shot). I'm going to have a talk with the dogs' owner and see if we can come to an agreement but considering the responses I got in the past from neighbors with free-running dogs, I doubt it.

The last time I had this problem, the pack of dogs mysteriously disappeared. When the dogs' owner got replacement dogs, he kept them fenced in. Message quietly sent, message quietly received.
 
I have never been able to catch a dog that was running deer on my properties.
I had a neighbor last year that let their dogs breed like rabbits, and run wild. They were up to like 13 dogs in a pack running a square mile like they owned the place. That was a pretty serious problem.

If you know the owners, just lie. Tell them you run yote traps, and if their dogs get into them you may not check them in time before their dog dies a slow and painful death. If they care about their dogs they have to keep them off your private property. If you can catch them and they're nice you can take them to the owner and ask them to remedy it. If they don't next time you just go drive them off and dump them at a pound.

I do suspect if a giant buck got ran off in front of me by 3 dogs. There would be lead flying though.

My father bird hunts, and goes through a lot of trouble to keep his dogs put up. They got out before, and all of them died of poisoning. That was heart breaking for him. So I would always try to work it out because some people do actually care, and I would be much more understanding of dogs digging out once or twice for an old man trying his best vs someone that doesn't care and won't work with you.

Of the 4 properties I hunt. I had dog issues on all of them last year, and I haven't seen a single dog this year. I'm not sure where they all went.
 
The state of TN has a leash law. Now try to enforce it. Probably not going to happen. I think the best measure is for them to disappear. Then if the owner says anything in passing remind him if the leash law and it wouldn't happen.
 
I would be furious if a big buck got ran off in front of me due to dogs. I hunt N Cherokee and it's a problem down in the foothills with all these new houses that's been built right up against the forest. They don't care even have a guy that shoots into the forest from his house. Almost got a buddy of mine shot. Cause I told him to go there then guy opens up with him sitting there. Happened both times he went there. Shooting wildly into the forest from his house.
 
BSK said:
The last time I had this problem, the pack of dogs mysteriously disappeared. When the dogs' owner got replacement dogs, he kept them fenced in. Message quietly sent, message quietly received.
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Chickencoop96 said:
Last weekend of this past rifle hunt for deer in South Cherokee I had a new experience in the woods. three pit bulls with no collars on ran a massive buck off of my spot and ruined my hunt. He was about to step into my shooting lane before he stopped to look behind him and before I knew it he was running full sprint. He went past me like a bat outta hell and I couldn't pull the rifle up and get him in my scope quick enough. Then them dogs followed right behind him. This happened to me the opening weekend in the same spot with a spike, same three dogs. Is there something that can legally be done? Will a game warden be able to help? Need opinions.
Click to expand...
Had it happen to me near benton mtn. If your hunting near the foot where alot of the deer are its bound to happen. To many in McMinn and Polk let thier dogs run free.
 
When I hunted coal mine land in IN the DNR always told us that if we saw a pack of dogs running without collars, shoot them on the spot. People would drop their unwanted pets off and let them run wild. Over time, they can run with the coyotes, but I heard this takes a long time to happen. I've shot a handful of wild dogs when I was up there. Some get extremely dangerous. Down here in TN, all the dogs I see running on WMA's have collars and typically live nearby. Extremely aggrevating that the owners could care less about them running wild like that. I've had at least a dozen hunts ruined because of dogs running in the last yr. I watched 2 dogs destroy a buck that looked to be hit by a car that ended up dieing on private land that backed up to a WMA. So they absolutely will take a deer out if they can get ahold of them (most will get away if uninjured).
 
A few years ago we contacted the sheriff and animal Control about a dog. He was a problem. They did nothing at all. They told us to shoot him actually. We didn't ended up attacking a neighbors dog and he finally got picked up.

Been lucky not to deal with dogs much during hunting beside stupid coon hunters that think they own everything.
 
A few years ago I shot a doe by the time I got to her two pits were eating on her. I left the area and hoped to never see them again about two or three weeks later I was walking out from a morning hunt when the same two dogs charged me. I have seen them since. SSS. If they would have charged me walking in I'm afraid there would have been a different out come.
choot'em before your being chased in or out of the woods or some other hunter meet his or her fate in the woods.
 
I'm not sure how far you were from houses but if you were deep in South Cherokee it probably wasn't yard dogs. There are guys around Polk county that run hogs, bear and deer with dogs on South Cherokee. Most of their dogs don't have collars for a reason. It could've been some of their dogs.
 
Dogs at large are fair game in TN. I had an issue with a neighbors dog that was vicious towards me and my dog on my property. I finally called the state and asked what I could legally do, they said to shoot it if it happened again. I confronted my neighbor several times, once was a hostile confrontation where I was PISSED. He didn't like me for a while which was a little nerve racking because he was a major drug runner for cartels back in the day, spent 30 years in prison for it. He finally realized that I didn't want to shoot his dog but I was GOING to if I ever saw it loose on my place again. We are buddies now but it was touchy for a few months.

We've also had issues with dogs loose on our farms, we take care of them if needed especially if they run livestock.
 

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