results of Indiana Advisory meeting on dog training

[jackrabbit]

ALLIANCE MEMBERS AND SUPPORTERS

The meeting went good. There were about 30 sportsmen and women from all walks of sporting dogs and the only person that spoke against us, other than IDNR, was Indiana Wildlife Federation. when I first contacted Paula Yeager from the federation she stated that it seemed that IDNR should leave the dog training areas open year round because the properties were mutli-use. and when I talked to Charlie O'Neil at the Legislative Summer Session meetings he too stated we needed places to run our dogs..... and so what would you think would cause their change of position..... yep you guessed it....our staunchest opponent is on their board. Don't be surprised if when you have a real need for support that he always takes the opposing side. but anyway.........

We were able to get Glen Lange to again signify by nodding his head yes.... that they will not attempt to make any more changes in training rules for coon dogs. This was a real sticky issue for a little while. also everyone should be very proud of two of our sporting dog owners from Marion, Indiana. Carla Bare, is a school teacher and owns Retrievers, she brought one of her students with her. Folks im here to tell you that student in just a few short words became the sweetheart of the meeting. She was able to show the committee and the audience that the dog training issue is much larger than just a few old codgers taking their dogs out to chase rabbits. Carla's group at her school has about 50 members, and they are devoted to training and working of their sporting dogs. I honestly feel that Carla and her student had more of impact on everyone in the room, the committee included, than anything all the rest of us had to say combined. Folks im here to tell you that was an awesome sight., and they were able to drive home to the committee what a complex issue the dog training issue really is. Hopefully their efforts will equate into positive actions on the part of the committee for the water-dog groups.

The advisory committee ask some real hard questions of IDNR, and they could not answer the questions or
come up with any research to back their position. They seemed to rely on "its the biologist intuitive feeling"
that dog running has a negative impact on small game and upland birds. The majority of the committee
seemed to back one member who is a biologist also. He said that though he felt that a case could be made
that dog training had some negative impact ,he didn't feel that any changes should be made without first having
documented and verifiable research that was also "Indiana specific". And many of the committee members voiced
optimissiam in our favor after the meeting. One scary area is that one of the members seems to be very non-game
oriented. She was very concerned about the non-game ground nesting birds and what impact our dogs could have
on them.All in all, however, the meeting was definitely slanted in our favor this time. the committee will work on
the dog training issue and make a recommendation to the Natural Resource Commission for future use when IDNR brings
their proposal to the commission.all sportsmen and women will need to be ready to attend at least one more meeting, and possibly two. And continued E-mails to Mr. McCormick are so extremely important. Mr. McCormick's E-mail addy is
mcCfarms@wvc.net Please have everyone you know or have in your address book send Mr. McCormick a nicely stated
message. Ask them to stick to the facts, and not be derogatory toward IDNR in anyway. Use the terms dog training, and
refrain from using "hunting " or "dog Running". Remember we are a large user group of state properties and are asking that our
opportunities not be severely curtailed. We really need to inundate Mr. McCormick with positive, stated in a business like and
friendly manner E-mails

Thanks so much for your Support

Jack Hyden


again, Mr. McCormick's E-mail addy is mcCfarms@wvc.net.

INDIANA BEAGLERS ALLIANCE
"Supporting and Defending our Hunting Heritage"
http://www.beaglersalliance.org/indiana