Protect Private Property from Loose Dog Hunting in NC

Petition to the Governor of North Carolina, Pat McCrory, the North Carolina Wildlife Resource Commission Executive Director, Gordon Myers and the North Carolina Forest Service Forest Supervisor, Kristen Bail.

We respectfully request protection and enforcement of private property rights by instituting an immediate and permanent ban on loose dog hunting in the State of North Carolina.

Whereas: The owners of private property possess rights regarding the enjoyment, use, safety and peace of their property that legally surpass the privileges of hunters, especially when the pursuit of the sport deprives private property owners of rights, and

Whereas: North Carolina's population has grown by 1.4 million since 2000, creating an inevitable and growing conflict with hunters and their dogs as North Carolina becomes more populated, and

Whereas: Hunters using loose dogs, by their own admission, cannot hunt without their dogs trespassing and/or doing damage to private property and persist with full knowledge and understanding that laws will be broken, and

Whereas: Law enforcement agencies are unable to control trespassing, harassment and damage perpetrated by hunters with loose dogs, and

Whereas: Loose dog hunting is responsible for the majority of hunting complaints regarding arson, trespassing, harassment, threats of bodily injury, animal cruelty and livestock killings, and

Whereas: Trespassing, damage, and harassment from dogs and hunters lowers the value, desirability, and function of private property and tax revenues, and

Whereas: These abuses represent willful habitual illegal behavior that is uncontrollable by law enforcement, significant monetary losses and harassment of tax paying property owners of North Carolina and thereby necessitate a permanent ban on loose dog hunting, and

Whereas: Loose dog hunting is illegal for similar reasons in Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Texas, Washington and Wyoming

Therefore:

We, the undersigned residents and visitors of North Carolina, request that the inherently illegal practice of hunting with loose dogs be permanently banned in the State of North Carolina.