Ethical dilemma or just good luck?

My gut respose says I'd shoot him then I'd shoot them dogs. I don't think it's any different than the reverse...He comes in winded from chasing a hot doe for the last 3 miles and stops to take a breather. Hunting is 10% skill and 90% luck, well maybe not 90% but a whole lot of luck is involved. IMHO there isn't a thing immoral or unethical about it. But on the OTHER HAND I know the law says you can't use dogs to help you take a deer and being that I'm not totally sure that this would be a legal kill I would have to pass untill I could get further clarification.

First, I think it's funny how worried people get about the ethical implication of something. Much less to worry about it online--- but I digress.

I have a story to share, as it pertains to your exact scenario.

2001, Mid-October. I was spending the weekend with a friend in Southern Indiana and we were hunting hard as usual. On Sunday night we got a little carried away and had a few drinks... woke up feeling miserable on Monday. Called in sick to work, both of us, and went back to bed. Around 9 o'clock we wake up and decide there is no place we'd rather be than in a treestand.

We hike from his house with our climbers and bows, find a good ridge and sit about 150 yards apart. By 10:30 I hear dogs barking in the distance and they are getting closer... finally here they come into sight. A 130+" buck comes loping through with his tongue hanging out, dogs approximately 100 yards behind him. He goes past my stand at a heavy trot... 50 yards away. I draw but can't make a good shot so I wait. Hunting dogs at this point!

A few moments later the dogs appear over the ridge and are hot on his scent trail. Two short legged dogs, a beagle and boxer. They too pass by at 50 yards and no whistling or lip squeeking will stop them. I sit down disgusted, but still have hope my buddy stuck the deer as they were headed in his direction. Briefly I hear leaves crunching (Dogs are silent now) and I assume it's my pal. I turn around and here comes the buck back... this time uphill. I draw, put a pin on him and SMACK. Not exactly the sound I wanted to hear... but he ran off as if he were hurt bad. My initial thought was shoulder bone, but he fell over (Presumably dead) after only 80 yards so I figured I had at least one lung.

A trophy buck on the ground, I started to lower my bow get out of the tree. That's when the mutts showed up again... hot on his trail. By the time I got my bow back up the tree they were on blood. Then they REALLY sped up. The dogs barrelled over the hill into the paw-paws that held my trophy and WHOOOSH out he shot from the other side. The dogs opened up with howls and the buck ran as fast as any deer I've seen... I listened as they left the county!!!! I was SICK!

My friend and I spent the better part of 8 hours tracking that buck, then went back days later searching for buzzards or crows. No luck- the feral dogs had costs me a trophy.

Three months later... in December... my buddys neighbor walks over to his barn and asks him if he had lost a deer with his bow. At first he said no, not remember my heartbreaking fiasco. Later he remembered me and called me up... I went to his neighbors. We walked into the garage and there he was, an 18-1/2" wide 8 pointer with 9" G2s. Snow white antlers and an arrow to match. I donated the trophy to the landowner, he now displays it over his garage door.

To me there's just something about displaying a trophy that you didn't make full use of and by not finding the animal in time I felt I had wasted it. Shoot em' off dogs and give the racks away- So how's that for an ethical debate?


PS: I think this thread should really focus on our need to shoot feral dogs as they are terrorist in the woods.

OK guys now what exactly is a feral dog? Is this a dog that chases deer then goes home and sits on his favorite chair in his masters living room or a dog that has been abandoned and has gone wild. We like to think that every dog that is chasing deer has reverted back to the wild and has no home but that is usually not the case. I have a friend who was out hunting and his hunting buddy shot two dogs that were running down a deer and happened to pass in front of him. One of the dogs was not killed and made his way back to his master. The owner called the C.O. and he came out looking for the hunters. When he asked if they had shot the dog, the buddy answered yes and was arrested. He had to pay a fine and the vet bill for the dog. You can't just shoot a dog for chasing deer and you can't shoot one for being on your property unless he is killing livestock or endangering a person.

Henderson I was in the same boat as you with dogs chasing deer and ruining my hunt. Where I hunt there are several dogs that run loose. They get together in a pack and come onto the property and chase deer. They have owners and collars/tags. One is a St Bernard, one a rottweiller, and one a big mutt. The owners let them run freely and don't care what they do. These are not feral dogs. I have seen very few actual feral dogs. Most revert to the law of the pack when let run free. When I was a kid a boxer put my Dad out of the sheep business. When the neighbor shot him trying to get to the survivors locked in the barn. He knew who the dog belonged to. The owner came and identified the dog. The guy had 50 head of sheep on his own farm and the dog didn't touch them. I will post the question on the legal board. The buck is legal game and yes I would shoot it.

Drop the buck. I have had domestic dogs run deer to me, and I have had dogs run deer away from me. Sometimes you're lucky, and sometimes your not.

Very well said sir.

I also have to second the notion that handguns should be allowed to be carried while bow hunting. I had two very unfriendly dogs discover me in my own woods and all I had was my bow.

Ditto

My buddy's uncle's dog ran onto his neighbor's property and BOOM, dead dog. They called the county sheriff, he came out and said that as soon as the dog crossed the property line, he became the property of the neighbor and he could do nothing. BS in my book, but what can you do when Dudley Do Right is laying down the law. Last year I found a dead buck on the day before gun season, and on Thanksgiving morning, I was about to be cornered by either coyotes or dogs, I don't know which, just saw their eyes lit up by my streamlight. I have found tracks this year of a dog/yote the size of my fist. I say shoot the dogs and shut up about it.

Have you never "mud checked" a duck before?

;D