Why It Matters: The use of dogs is not only a deep-seated component of our hunting heritage, it is also a critical tool in the toolbox of science-based wildlife management. A petition brought before the Arizona Game and Fish Department Commission (Commission) sought to ban hunting with hounds in Arizona, which would have severely limited hunters’ ability to provide critical conservation data to the Arizona Game and Fish Department (AZGFD) and to use enhanced selectivity when hunting, ensuring that hunters are harvesting mature animals, and allowing the pursuit of specific animals causing conflict.
Highlights:
- Earlier this year, anti-hunting groups filed a petition to the Arizona Game and Fish Department Commission to prohibit the use of dogs while hunting mountain lions, black bears, and other wildlife.
- The petition was officially heard at the April 11th Commission meeting, with sportsmen and women attending the meeting to voice their opposition. The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) also attended the meeting and spoke in opposition to the petition.
- After several hours of public discussion, the Commission unanimously voted to deny the petitions.
Anti-hunting groups were far outnumbered at the AZGFD Commission meeting last week as nearly a hundred sportsmen and women showed up to voice their opposition to a petition seeking to end hound hunting.
After their original petition submitted in November of last year failed to be considered because of a technicality (the petitioners requested multiple changes, and Arizona law dictates that petitions may only address one change at a time), anti-hunting groups refiled petitions to the Commission in February seeking to prohibit the use of dogs while hunting “mountain lions, bobcats, black bears, foxes, coyotes, coatis, ringtails, and other mammals.” The petitions largely focused on the claim that dog hunting can result in harm to endangered species and that the use of GPS tracking for dogs is a violation of both the technology regulations and Fair Chase principles.
During the meeting, AZGFD responded by providing countering statistics and correcting the vastly inaccurate information of the petitions, and hunters, livestock owners, and other conservationists also voiced their concerns over the inaccuracies and misrepresentation of hound hunting in the petitions.
CSF’s Assistant Manager of Southwestern States Barry Snell spoke during the meeting saying “California has enacted policies that have effectively done what the petitioners are asking you to do today. As a result, mountain lion populations in California have spiked tremendously, unbalancing the ecosystem and causing a predictable decline in populations of various game and non-game species as a result.”
CSF’s Senior Coordinator of Policy Communications Hannah Stubblefield also attended and spoke as a houndsman and long-time resident of Arizona saying, “Quite frankly, I believe this petition is an insulting misrepresentation of a pursuit that I am deeply passionate about and it’s just purely a dangerous idea for Arizona. There are reasons why these animals need to be managed, and hound hunting is a critical tool to effectively do so.”
After hours of public comment, AZGFD Commissioners unanimously voted to deny the petitions. Although it is certain that these anti-hunting groups will not give up here, and it’s likely this effort will return as legislation or a ballot initiative, CSF thanks the Commission for defending science-based wildlife management and a tradition deeply cherished by many sportsmen and women, and will keep track of the issue as these anti-hunting groups continue to pursue their agenda.
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