Running of the Hounds, Nowhere to Hide in the North Woods

Here lies OSCAR killed by bear Sept. 22, 1984 and is proof that dogs die while hunting bear. I took the featured photo while out tracking wolves two weeks ago. Bear claws are hollow and filled with bacteria, and if a dog isn’t out right killed by the bear, the infection from the wounds will finish the job.

Bear hunters would have you believe they are saving your life by sending in dogs to chase bears. How? By educating the bear with hound hunting dogs.

“When you take away the use of the hounds, you take away the opportunity to educate those bears to what is known as aversion conditioning,” explained Josh Brones, the Government Affairs Coordinator for the United States Sportsmen’s Alliance.” Quote is from KRCRTV

This couldn’t be further from the truth. Bears are scared of dogs already. Even a toy poodle scares them off.

Bear hounders start feeding bears sweat treats starting in April. How is this sporting?

Baiting a wild animal so they will stick around long enough for the hunter to get a kill shot.

The American Dentist who killed Cecil the beloved lion used bait to lure him out of a protected reserve. Then shot him with an arrow and left him to suffer. This inhumane act caused outrage by millions of people demanding his killer be extradicted and tried.

Yet, here in Wisconsin it is common practice to bait a bear with Cheerios to lure them in for a kill shot (but it is not legal to accually shoot the bear over a bait pile). It is common knowledge that bears love sweats.

I will remind you that, it is not just wild bears hunted with packs of hunting dogs. Bobcats, coyotes and wolves are hound hunted.

If wolves are removed from the Endangered Species List they will be hunted with hound dogs. Wolf hound hunts took place in 2013 and 2014 in Wisconsin. Packs of dogs engaged wolves in bloody fights and hounders bragged about it amonst themselves within their own twisted circles (confirmed by a reliable source).

Wildlife in Wisconsin is harassed ten months out of the year.

Wild bears in WI are tracked and trailed with packs of radio collared hound hunting dogs. How is it sporting? Hound handlers are often miles away from the chase sitting in their vehicles or sitting at the neighborhood tavern.

I’ve been out in the woods many times late into the night on wolf howl surveys and have heard lost hounds baying. Where are their handlers? Nowhere in sight.

Does Wisconsin condone the hounding of wildlife? It is all legal. Even the grusome act of penning is legal here.

Captive wildlife, is brought in over state lines into Wisconsin for the purpose of entertainment. Oh but, they call it education, it is mutilating & torturing captive wildlife by dogs in training. In a fenced in pen with grown men watching. It is called penning and it is all legal in Wisconsin.

Featured Image Copyright by Rachel Tilseth

Warning the following video is grusome but it is a reality that is happening in Wisconsin. From penning facilty where hound dogs are set lose on fox and coyote

What can you do?

Call your elected representatives and express your outrage that this is legal in Wisconsin.

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7 comments

justin robotka July 31, 2015 at 5:00 pm

This blog isnt even factual. . Its just some jackwagon with a pen n paper trying to piss n moan about an american tradition that has been handed down for generations.. this is the great america if you dont appreciate freedom or your just one of those fighting to slowly take it then please relocate because I for one dont take kindly to people who try to take away my rights and will sure fight harder to keep them than you will to take them
good day
sincerely
justin robotka

Rachel Tilseth July 31, 2015 at 5:36 pm

Justin,
Please tell what is not facual. What you call an American tradition is under debate. Not every American tradition handed down from generation to generation is acceptable or humane. Last time I checked freedom of speech was a right. I do not intend to relocate. If you have done nothing wrong then why accuse people who have a different opinion of trying to take your rights away?

BrittRic July 31, 2015 at 5:43 pm

Can you identify what exactly isn’t factual here, and provide research to support your argument? It seems as though you are simply another hounder who feels threatened by the fact that the gruesome and cruel “sport” of hunting with dogs is being revealed for what it truly is — a blood sport that has no place in modern society. Dumping human candy and junk food in the woods, and then chasing down wild animals with packs of dogs is not ethical hunting. It’s a cheap and lazy at best.

Also, perhaps while researching your response as to why this isn’t a factual blog post – why don’t you also research what “freedom” in America actually means. Freedom means living in a safe, secure society, protected rights for all, that there will not be taxation without representation, and the right to worship freely.

It does not mean you should be able to do whatever the hell you want, including using hunting dogs to chase down and kill our state’s shared wildlife in the name of “tradition” because you find it entertaining.

Rachel Tilseth July 31, 2015 at 5:45 pm

Britt,
Very thought provoking comment!

BrittRic July 31, 2015 at 11:40 pm

Jesse, the part about your commentary that I find odd is that you immediately leap to conclusions that we are straight anti-hunting across the board. That is simply a false accusation which embodies the kind of ignorance we deal with daily.

The fact remains that I come from a family of ethical hunters. My boyfriend is an ethical deer, duck, pheasant and grouse hunter and an avid fisherman. He takes only what he will eat, lets the small ones go, and releases almost any fish he catches unless I ask him to keep it for dinner (which I rarely do). He has no interest in hunting with a pack of hounds and he would never kill and wolf, as he holds a far better understanding of ecology and the delicate balance in which wolves play within our fragile ecosystem.

As for survival, you don’t have to worry about us. We grow our own food, and are already quite attuned to various ethical methods of hunting for sustenance. But thank you for your concern.

Oh, and if you actually think you are at risk for being attacked by a pack of wolves while foraging for berries, I suggest you try picking up a book once in a while….and not the folklore or fairytale kind.

Matt August 2, 2015 at 12:21 am

Bears are, in fact, allowed to be shot over a bait pile. That would be called “Bait hunting”, and who gets the earlier hunting dates are alternated yearly with the ” Hound hunters”.

Hound hunters do not bait bear in order to keep them around long enough to get a good kill shot. The bait is used to locate mature bear which can then be tracked by the hounds.

If a hound is wounded by a bear’s claw, it will most likely not die from the bacteria in the claw any more than a person would die from stepping on a rusty nail. Anti-biotics, tetracycline in particular, are almost always used. The purchasing price, training cost and upkeep costs of having hounds would make leaving them to die from easily treated infections very foolish.

It is neither cheap or lazy. Feeding a pack of dogs year around, the vet bills, the gas, the licenses….. Short of travelling to Zimbabwe to kill one of the several hundred lions killed there every year, it has got to be one of the most expensive (time and money) ways to hunt.

Hounds are also used to chase fox, raccoon,rabbits and squirrels. Dogs are also used to chase pheasants, grouse and woodcock, though they are birds and apparently not cute enough to warrant any sympathy.

I have never witnessed a hound, or any dog, baying at anything because it was lost. If the dog is actually baying, it has something cornered in a hole or in a tree. The dog’s bark will change (pitch, length, intensity, etc.) with the varying conditions of the hunt.

If you heard a hound hunter bragging about his dogs fighting wolves…. Well, I’m surprised they have dogs left. Wolves attack and eat hounds in the Douglas County Forests. The sounds of hounds working a scent trail indicate to wolves that an easy meal is in the area.

Maybe this delights wolf people, maybe not, doesnt really matter. It just enforces the “The three S” theory and makes people carry more steel rounds.

Wildlife is harrassed all year around, not just for 10 months. Coyotes are considered vermin and have an open season (except during deer hunting to protect wolves) on them all year.

Logically speaking, wouldn’t bear be afraid of toy poodles BECAUSE of aversion since hunting with dogs has been around longer than toy poodles? I think the whole aversion thing is ridiculous, but to each their own.

Wolves of Douglas County Wisconsin Film Company