Why It Matters: Limiting access to Mississippi’s sportsmen and women through blanket bans on equipment, requiring individuals to have access to 2k contiguous acres of privately owned ground to hunt with, train, or utilize any hunting dog, and requiring people to obtain a depredation permit from the state to eliminate any nuisance animal is entirely unnecessary and counterintuitive to science-based wildlife management.
Highlights:
- On January 16th, HB 828 was introduced by Representative Justin Keen and aims to outlaw the use of thermal optics, suppressors, and night vision; limit the use of hunting dogs on private property and completely eliminate it on public lands; require Mississippians to obtain a depredation permit to be able to remove any nuisance animal; and more.
- HB 828 has been referred to the House Committee on Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks (Committee) where it awaits a scheduled hearing.
- On January 20th, the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) submitted a testimony in opposition to HB 828 to the full Committee.
Hunting with dogs is a traditional pastime that’s been passed down for generations of Mississippians. Blanket bans such as those being proposed on hunting dogs, in addition to the limits on equipment that people can utilize to manage or eliminate nuisance animals as well as being required to obtain a depredation permit is added government bureaucracy.
HB 828 directly threatens the tradition of hunting with dogs by ambiguously requiring that hunting with dogs is only allowed on private property that is comprised of a minimum of 2,000 contiguous acres. Specifically, it does not stipulate exactly what kind of hunting dogs that would be regulated or the game in which those dogs are pursuing. There is also no carve-out for dogs being used to track and recover downed game animals. All in all, this bill is a direct threat to the very fabric of the rich hunting traditions that so many Mississippians share each year.
Ironically, HB 828 has been dubbed the “Fair Chase Act,” yet the bill really does nothing to positively impact fair chase. Limiting the use of thermals, suppressors, and night vision does nothing but benefit nuisance animals. It’s already illegal to hunt deer at night, and the poachers who are doing so now will continue to do so if this legislation were to pass. This would only impact the individuals who operate appropriately and who are doing their part to manage nuisance species.
CSF’s letter stated: “In addition to the threats to hunting with dogs, HB 828 further impacts Mississippi’s hunters, farmers, and private landowners by limiting the use of suppressors, thermal optics, and night vision to eliminate nuisance animals at night. Thermal optics and suppressors are just two of many tools in the bag in the effort to manage feral hogs, coyotes, and more. Feral hogs alone cause $2.5 billion in damage every year in the United States, and their population continues to grow in Mississippi. Therefore, hunters and private landowners should be offered the opportunity to continue to be able to take those animals with the effective tools currently allowed under state law.”
The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF) will continue to work with the Mississippi Legislative Sportsmen’s Caucus, the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, and our partners to defend access for sportsmen and women and oppose HB 828.
