Bears and Hogs

Buzz Williams
This captive bear is confined in a 6’ x 12’ cage by bear hunters, who use the animal to train hunting dogs.

considering a bill to extend the season for hunting bear with dogs in the Mountain Hunt Unit, which includes Greenville, Pickens and Oconee Counties. This area also includes the South Carolina section of the Chattooga River watershed. Currently, hunters can hunt bear with dogs in the Mountain Hunt Unit for one week of the designated bear hunting season. Bear may also be hunted with primitive weapons for one week, and for one week during the gun hunt. The South Carolina Bear Hunters Association is based in Pickens County, and drafted H4448 that was introduced at the state house by Representative David Hiott and Senator Larry Martin, both of whom are from Greenville. According to the bear hunters, the reasoning behind the proposed season extension is that they need a dog training season as well as an extended kill season due to evidence that the bear population in the mountains has expanded enough to sustain a greater harvest. Opponents of the bill dispute the population estimates, and claim that bear hunting with dogs violates the rules of fair chase and encourages trespassing on private property.

The bear population in the upstate of South Carolina has increased in recent years to an estimated 900 bears, according to Skip Still, bear biologist with the South Carolina Department of Natural Resources (DNR). Previous estimates by the DNR of the bear population in upper South Carolina ranged from 200 to 300 individuals. While most experts agree bear habitat has improved since the founding of the national forest after the turn of the century and more recent improvement in state and federal land management practices, others point to the fact that remaining private land in bear country is being fragmented and developed at an astonishing rate. Brad Wyche with Upstate Forever, a conservation organization located in Greenville) estimates that every day in the upstate we lose 40 acres to development and add 40 people to our human population. This development and population growth fragments and even destroys bear habitat and wildlife movement corridors, and also causes much more frequent interaction between people and bears. Bears have an outstanding sense of smell and often forage for food in bird feeders, dog food, and garbage, which often results in a bear/human confrontation. Bears that are normally shy soon adapt to the easy pickin’s around human habitat, and lose their fear of people. The DNR’s mantra is that “a fed bear is a dead bear.” Recent bear/human interaction has caused nuisance bear complaints to skyrocket. Some believe that the DNR is inflating bear population numbers to justify increasing the kill rate in order to cut down on the expensive relocation and euthanasia program necessary to reduce nuisance bear complaints.

The South Carolina Bear Hunters Association cites their cultural tradition of hunting bears with dogs as a reason for dog hunt allocations. Yet others, including many “still” hunters, argue that a bear pursued with dogs equipped with radio telemetry collars that send signals to hunters sitting in pick up trucks, who then speed down county and state roads to cut the bear off, kill it, and haul it out on an ATV, is a far cry from traditional hunting. Bolstering this counterargument is the sentiment expressed in a quote by Aldo Leopold in his landmark book A Sand County Almanac, as follows: “…there is value in any experience that exercises those ethical restraints collectively called ‘sportsmanship.’ Our tools for the pursuit of wildlife improve faster than we do, and sportsmanship is a voluntary limitation in the use of these armaments. It is aimed to augment the role of skill and shrink the role of gadgets in the pursuit of wild things.”

Bear dogs often stray onto private property on party dog hunts, a fact that bear hunters use to justify their use of radio collars. The argument is that a lost dog can be located and retrieved, if they know where the dog goes. But the retrieval process often involves trespassing on to private property. In recent years, confrontations between irate landowners and hunters that have trespassed to retrieve expensive hunting dogs have reached the boiling point on a number of occasions in the Mountain Hunt Unit.

There are other problems. Training bear dogs often involves “bear baying,” a training process where dogs are taught to harass a captive bear that is usually chained to a low platform. The dogs are reprimanded for making physical contact with the bear; nonetheless, opponents believe the training technique involving captive bears is inhumane. Recent media stories about bear baying rodeos, where the public pays to watch as bears in an enclosed area are set upon with bear dogs in open competition, has spawned protest at what many consider to be cruelty to animals. Public outcry on this issue has resulted in the DNR instituting a registration program for captive bears and refusing to issue new permits, essentially taking a middle-of-the-road policy to phase out bear baying.

Another problem concerns setting out food for bears, known as baiting, in hopes of drawing the animals into a designated area. Unethical bear hunters put out bait to lure bears to an area where dogs can be loosed for the chase. Based on tips from the public, the Chattooga Conservancy has documented several bait sites during the 2005 bear hunting season. The practice of putting out bait for bears adds more fuel to the claim of violations of the rules of fair chase.

Law enforcement officials have identified another vexing problem with current bear hunting regulations. Unethical bear hunters allow dogs to pursue bear out of season during their hunts for other game animals including raccoons, squirrel, possum, and fox. This loophole effectively allows pursuing bear from September to March, except during the still hunt for deer and bear. Game wardens must actually catch the hunters killing a bear before they can take action against the offenders. Exacerbating this problem is the fact that law enforcement is woefully under funded—a point the DNR does not dispute.

Then there is the problem with feral hogs. Wild hog populations have exploded in the last five years due to the popularity of “hog dogging,” a sport involving the catch and release of wild boar. The hogs are pursued with catch dogs, and often involve the same hunters who hunt bear with dogs. The DNR does not consider the feral hogs as a game animal, thus allowing dog hunters to hunt almost year-round. Meanwhile, damage to the natural environment by hogs is dramatic. Hogs wallow in wetlands causing water pollution, ravenously devour a wide variety of sensitive plants and animals that include salamanders, orchids, and crayfish, and carry diseases such as swine brucellosis, pseudo-rabies, hog cholera, and tuberculosis. Wild hogs also devour the eggs of ground nesting birds such as wild turkey, grouse, and ovenbirds. Ironically, hogs compete with animals such as deer and bear for acorns, which is the primary food of these preferred game animals. Repetitive catch and release of hogs is a brutal sport, often resulting in severe injury to both hogs and catch dogs. Bear hunters that use hogs as an extension of their sport by taking advantage of the lack of regulation and enforcement cause extensive damage to the environment, injury to animals, and promote unethical hunting practices. Any debate about bear hunting regulations must also engage the issue of unregulated hog hunting.

As it stands now, the bill H448 before the South Carolina State Legislature would extend the dog hunting season for bear by one week and add six weeks of running bear with dogs in September and October, to “train dogs.” During this extended running season, hunters would not be allowed to kill bears. However, studies have shown that running bear with dogs in the late summer and fall can result in mortality when cubs are lost after being separated from sows. In addition, cubs are sometimes killed by dogs, or are killed by unethical hunters irregardless of regulation.

Bear hunting with dogs is also a safety issue. One quarter of the bears killed by dog hunters are within 200 yards of a road, and sometimes are in the road (Collins, 1972). Observations by Chattooga Conservancy staff in the 2005 bear hunting season documented hunters “standing” along both sides of a paved county road waiting for a bear pursued by dogs to cross.

As we go to press, the South Carolina Senate Game, Fish and Forestry Committee is debating the issue. To date, the DNR refuses to budge on their support for H444,8 even in light of the fact that the Chattooga Conservancy and several private citizens in Pickens County have offered a compromise bill that would allow a two week “running season” (for dog training) in September, one week of still hunting for bear in October, one week of hound hunting in October, and one week of bear/deer still hunting in December. The compromise bill also increases law enforcement, as well as more regulation of hunting parties as per size, kill reports, and hunt master requirements. We have also proposed that the DNR and the U. S. Forest Service should institute an intense hog-trapping program, and beefed up law enforcement of catch and release hog activity on game management lands.

In summary, the bear hunting situation in the upstate of South Carolina is out of control. Bear hunters who have “captured” the DNR and local politicians are asking for a greater number of days to hunt bear with dogs, and a dramatic increase in the number of days to run bear with dogs for training. We are opposed to the proposed increases because we believe the bear population data being used to justify this is simply wrong. DNR’s data suggesting that bear populations have jumped from 2-300 bear to 900, literally overnight, is questionable at best. The necessary law enforcement to check illegal bear baiting, out of season harvest, illegal bear running, catch and release of wild hogs by bear hunters, and trespass on private property is seriously inadequate. Most disturbing is the fact that the current method of bear hunting with high tech equipment violates the rules of fair chase. We have offered a reasonable compromise and it has been rejected. There is no choice but to kill H4448.