Hound hunting, a practice that Alex Smith briefly touched on, still exists in a few states, including Vermont although it has been outlawed in many states in America. I am not the biggest supporter of this practice, and I believe that this method of hunting should be banned in all 50 states. There are many reasons that these states have ruled to outlaw it, as it is harmful to the hounds that are trained to hunt, it disrupts the population of bears, and the dogs are very very hard to tame.

The hounds that are often used in this practice are typically not treated well in any manner. Since hunters typically rely on hunting for either food or income, the hounds are treated with very little mercy, and often rely on their performance to live and be protected by an owner. They are frequently dumped at municipal animal shelters or left in the woods if they do not perform adequately. Quarrels with the other species (in this case hounds and bears) can end in injuries or death to the other species. In turn, hounds mauled by bears can suffer broken bones, punctured lungs, or other serious injuries. The image below depicts how the hounds are typically transported, in a manner that is not very safe, nor comfortable for the animals. It is relatively cruel to the animals to be moved to their destinations in this enclosed manner.

The bears are also affected differently with this style of hunting in comparison to traditional ways of hunting bears. Often, the bears are chased before periods of hibernation. If they are chased for prolonged periods, they can lose a lot of the extra fat they store to keep them warm during their lengthy hibernation. They can experience severe physical stress due to the loss of their fat layer and additionally, overheated bears can die and pregnant bears can lose embryos.

Hound hunting has been an extremely hot topic in the news lately. There has been a lot of controversy around this issue after Morgan Gold posted a video on TikTok of Butch Spear, president of the Vermont Bearhound Association, approaching Gold in his driveway and asking for permission to retrieve his hounds from Gold’s property. The dogs wound up there in pursuit of a bear. Gold reported on the incident after it had taken place, “They couldn’t call their dogs off my property. They had to physically pull the dogs away from the tree before they could settle them down and get them away from the bear.” The kicker is here, Gold did not want these hounds on his property and Spear could not control them to not chase the bear onto Gold’s property, thus proving that it is very hard to control and contain the dogs when they are out in the field doing what they are told to do. Due to these three reasons, in my opinion, hounding should be outlawed in the fifty states.

“Facts about Bear Hounding.” The Humane Society of the United States, https://www.humanesociety.org/resources/facts-about-bear-hounding.
Grace Benninghoff Sep 12 2021September 12, 2021, et al. “Viral Video Draws Attention to Debate over Hound Hunting Laws in Vermont.” VTDigger, 13 Sept. 2021, https://vtdigger.org/2021/09/12/viral-video-draws-attention-to-debate-over-hound-hunting-laws-in-vermont/.