January Houndsmen column preview

[Emily]

NYHCA article for American Cooner, Full Cry, Rabbit Hunter; Hound and Horn January 2010

To see pix, look here:
http://docs.google.com/Doc?docid=0AXR8v ... ZkNA&hl=en




New York Houndsmen Conservation Association
"Houndsmen Helping Houndsmen"

Emily S. Plishner
P.O Box 63
West Kill, NY 12492
518 989 6454

emily.plishner@verizon.net
www.nyhoundsmen.org



Winter has arrived here in West Kill. As I write, passing snow squalls are leaving an inch here and there every hour or two. My coyote hunting friends are getting excited by the weather and should be at it in earnest by the time you read this. Meanwhile, everyone is showing each other buck pictures. Here's a good one:

Elizabeth Cline of Grand Gorge with her six pointer from opening day

Even though our elected officials in Albany have been called back to take care of business, there hasn't been much going on there. However, a recent federal judicial decision in a KY case may have implications for a New York Ag and Markets animal abuse provision, Article 26, §373(6)(a), that is similar. Both laws allow authorities to seize abused animals before a finding of guilt. If the owner does not post a bond--sometimes thousands per month--to cover the cost of "care and maintenance" of the animal(s) at the impound facility, the animal is forfeited to the impounding organization even if the owner is eventually found not guilty. The judge in the Kentucky case ruled that unconstitutional, an "erroneous deprivation" of property rights (the animal being the property). Our NY statute is particularly onerous because the same people who often bring the animal abuse charges--the shelters, pounds, humane societies, etc.--may benefit financially from leveling charges. In general, these groups are not sympathetic to houndsmen! Many of us have heard rumors of hounds being neutered while impounded, and a lot of us don't have the ready cash to post a security bond for a pack of hounds that may be deemed "too skinny" or "abused" because some local animal rights group doesn't like shock collars, coyote hunting, or whatever. The Dog Federation's legal analysts have posted a detailed discussion of the issues at http://www.dogfederationofnewyork.blogspot.com/ . They conclude that the government should be responsible for the maintenance of the "evidence" [the animal(s)] while the case plays out, and perhaps even that the abused animals can be left in their owner's custody during adjudication, but with court supervision. However, it may require some lobbying, legislation, or at least judicial precedent in NY federal districts to change NY enforcement to align with the federal judge's decision in the Kentucky case. Meanwhile, if anyone threatens to have your hounds impounded under animal abuse statutes, please let us know. While we like to see our hounds in top condition, and encourage our members to take excellent care of their dogs, we don't need to waive our constitutional rights to see that that happens. Innocent until proven guilty.
Also on the legislative front, The NY Conservation Council reminds us of two dates. On January 12, 9 AM - 1 PM at the well in Albany, it will be Sportsmen & Outdoor Recreation Legislative Awareness Day. Groups wanting to educate lawmakers about sportsmen's issues will be given tables to distribute information, and introductions to specific legislators can be arranged. If your hound club can send a delegation, or you can attend through your county federation, please contact Harold Palmer at the Conservation Council. The Conservation Council will hold its own legislative meeting in Albany on March 13 at 8 am.

In a disturbing incident, two coonhounds were picked up by persons unknown, the batteries were removed from their tracking collars, and they were found at some from where they were turned out. This incident began on Sunday, November 1 at 7:30 pm in the vicinity of Jones Road in the Stony Pond State Forest near Erieville, Madison County. The hounds were Stylish Trouble, a 4 year old female belonging to Rich Taber, and Trapper, a 1.5 yr. old male, formally Buck Creek Mr. Smith, belonging to Shawn Choquette and Jason Tucker. According to Rich, "The radio signals disappeared as the dogs were taken away, and we searched extensively within a 10 mile radius to no avail," that night. The next day, Trouble was found miles away from where they cut her, and the people who found her called Rich. "Shawn went to pick her up, and noticed that her tracking collar was not blinking, so he thought the batteries were out," Rich reports. "He opened the case and found that the batteries had been removed!...Can you believe that? Someone nabbed our dogs, removed the batteries from the collars, then put the collars back together and then dumped the dogs a ways away. Trouble was found 8 miles from where we were hunting. Who would be carrying a small Allen wrench with them on a Sunday night out in the woods so they could open a Marshall Tracking collar? Who would do this sort of thing?"... Shawn's Trapper was missing "for 19 days when he was literally chased down by the Burger King in Manlius, a suburb of Syracuse, by another couple of good Samaritans... They went to great risk to save this dog, and how he did not get killed, shot, run over, etc. is a miracle. At any rate, he has been found, very thin but otherwise in good shape. His collar? No batteries in it either." We have never heard of this particular kind of harassment before, so please let us know if anyone else has had tracking collar batteries removed.

The AKC held its Large Pack National beagle championship on Saturday November 7 and Sunday November 8 in Lacona, NY. There were a total of 139 entries. I'm afraid that I don't have any pictures, but here are the winners:
13" dogs (39 starters): 1st, NLPC FC Kevin Tughill Maxamus , 39pts, J. Dowlearn; 2nd, Branko's Mtm, 19 1/2 pts, B Krpan; 3rd, Beaver Ridge Jonathan's Jack, 13 pts; 4th, Tears' Jay, 9 3/4 pts, J. Tears.
13" bitches (32 starters): 1st, Al's Swampghost Northern Belle, 32 pts, D Piche; 2nd, FC Hocking Hills Daisy Duke, 16 pts, R&C Wingfield; 3rd Swampsing'N Flicka, 10 2/3 pts, D. Piche; 4th, Swampsing'N Little Lyza, 8 pts, P.Pawson.
15" dogs (37 starters): 1st, Branko's Hammer, 37 pts, B. Krpan; 2nd, Cedar Beck Oliver, 18 1/2 pts, R&D King; 3rd, FC Cedar Beck Blazer II, 12 1/3 pts, R&D King; 4th, Big Brook Royal Princess, 9 1/4 pts, N. Farrier.
15" bitches (31 starters): Eaton Brook Wild Mts. Laurel, 31 pts, A. Pfendler; 2nd, NLPC FC Nemasket's Big Spring, 15 1/2 pts, J Gamache/C. Chase; 3rd, South Woods Cyclone, 10 1/3 pts, J. Richards; 4th, Big Brook Royal Princess, 7 3/4 pts, S. Shelmidine.


Gorham held two coonhound events, PKC hunts on November 4th and 6th. On the 4th, there were 13 dogs entered, with a split of $48.75. Marian, owner Michelle Robbins, handled by Eric Simmons came in with 300+; Ox, owned by Ivan Flannery/Jeremy Thomas, handled by Rachel Barnhart, came in with 50+; Storm, also owned by Flannery and Thomas, handled by Ivan, and Joker, owned by Ketchum Kennels and handled by John Weidman Jr, both came in with no points, plus or minus. On the 6th, 14 dogs entered and the split was $96.25. John Weidman Jr. brought in 300+ with Joker; Dustin Herzig brought in 225+ with Herm Flowers' Lucy; Jeff Bower put 200+ on Bob Moffett's Cane, and Eric Simmons put 100+ on Marian.

Herm Flowers said "The coon seemed to be really moving good even though we hunted on a heavy frost. The score sheets came back with most of the lines all filled up.The Gorham Coonhunters would like to apologize to anyone who could not make it last night [the sixth] because of the early 7:00 deadline on a work day.This was caused by our dates being switched for some reason.We do not like to operate this way as we want everyone to have the opportunity to make it to our hunts...We would like to thank Keystone Mills for donating two 50 lbs. bags of Joy dog food which we gave away, one to the winner of a drawing and the other to the high scoring dog. "



In a thoroughly distressing incident, three bow hunters found a beagle in a seldom-visited swamp on private land near Saratoga. The poor animal had been wrapped up with duct tape and left in the woods in a garbage bag to die a slow and gruesome death. By the time she was found, most of her fur had fallen out and she had lost 20 lbs. The bow hunters whisked her to a vet, who discovered she was microchipped, enabling authorities to identify her owners and get her home. Daisy is recuperating nicely. She had been missing for two weeks. The story of deranged abuse led the Albany area news. The Saratoga County Sheriff's office is investigating. The Dog Federation of NY issued letters of commendation to the "regular guys," Ed Dandaraw, Tom Peter and Kevin McCauliffe, who found Daisy and took her to a vet, saving her life.

On a lighter note, houndsmen Gene Molyneaux did some reminiscing about great hounds he has owned over the years on the nyhounder Internet board, http://nyhounder.proboards.com/index.cgi . Here's a couple:

Beezer- "Beezer - She was a treeing walker that was a great producer and a bear, bobcat, and coon hound deluxe! Once she caught a 39 pound cat on the ground by herself. When I found her she was on her deathbed, laid up under a pine tree. A little ways away from her lay that 39 lb bobcat dead. I took her to the vet and they quit counting at 200 stitches. Took her out 3 weeks later during the January thaw and she treed 3 coon in the same tree!

Miss Molly - "She was a bear and coyote hound. She was a good cold trailer and a helluva bay and fight dog. She once put a young dog out of a race when running a coyote. It went across the road into another block. I grabbed up the young dog and snowshoed in behind her. I was using the tracking system because I could not hear her barking. One of the other guys came in through the middle of the block on a snow sled and did not cut her track. He had a tracker with a better signal and honed in on her. He found where 4 other coyotes came in to where she had that coyote bayed and tried to stretch her. For 100 yards he could see in the snow where the dog and coyotes fought, with blood on the ground and coyote hair all over. As I got close to the ravine that separated me from where he was, the pup got all bristled up and went charging into the ravine. There was Molly backed up into the ravine with a dead coyote at her feet, one maimed bad enough it would not run and 3 other coyotes having a Mexican standoff. Pup (his name was LB) went charging in to even up the odds. The 3 coyotes went back up and over the ravine and straight to Roy who was sure Molly must be dead. To his surprise here comes 3 coyotes with Molly and LB putting the teeth to them. Another time, I pulled her off a coyote at 4:30 at night and put her back on that same coyote at 8:30 the next morning. At 2:30 that afternoon she had it run down and bayed in the creek. One of the boys snowshoed into her and shot at the coyote once and missed it. She overtook the coyote in the snow and grabbed it by the throat and killed it herself.
"Queen was a July/English cross. She was Molly's sister. She was as good a start dog as you would ever want on both coyote and bear. Never had a track that she could not start. If you left her on a bay too long, she was like her sister. She took matters into her own hands if she had help. Otherwise she held it til you got there. She got banged up on bear a few times, but never anything serious. Almost lost her 2 years ago at 15 to a uterine infection and had to have her spayed. They gave her a 50/50 chance to make it through and she did to run again. She ran this year on both bear and coyote. Queen passed on last week.

"I've been told many times that you only have one of those special dogs in a life time. I never believe it and I guess it was a good thing. I've had quite a few."

Matt McDonnell reports that his tricolor pup, Roller, "is just as big as Shilo and Roxy [redbone females] now, at 4 1/2 months of age. He got deep with Shilo tonight and was at the tree with her. He has no problem getting deep for a pup. When Shilo came treed they were .67 miles on the Garmin--not bad for a pup that age--and he puts some real good mouth on track. They had a big coon treed and it was nasty out, windy, raining and some sleet."

Matt McDonnell's hunting buddy Mike Lewellyn with Roller and Shilo




Jim Downs was still coonhunting after Thanksgiving--the Lake effect snow seems to be giving them a break in Camden this year. Here's a tale of his from November 14:
"That Plott hound of Jay's finally did something right. We made one drop off the dead end road off Bee Bee Bridge. There was a ton of track in there, my redbone's run track all over the place. That Black hound opened and treed some. I think we had two good trees in there, one den and one we just couldn't find the coon in. The hounds and I were pretty sure he was there hiding in a crotch somewhere but we couldn't find him. We gave up and took them over to Popples farm. I no more than got the words out 'they should open right about here' and they all three opened about the same time. I think that was the first time that Plott hound opened on track. I think they ran it backwards all the way to route 13. We ran and got ahead of them, leashed them up and being either the knowledgeable houndsman or crazy S.O.B. I am , I walked them back in on that track. They put the screws to them and treed two boar coon in a wet hole that was just over Jay's boots. Magee looked pretty good for a Black dog sitting in water up to her ass treeing, Give the Devil his due, that dog is loud. Them coon were tough to spot but I took them both to make up for the one we left at the last spot. I felt guilty about taking two out of the same tree for about a minute , then I got over it. I don't think Jay minded his boots filling up because Magee was treeing . I was thankful he did all the wading for me. He retrieved my hounds and the coons from the drink. I think I only need 4 more to make the 30 I usually skin, but the weather could turn bad anytime now. I've only missed one night of hunting since about the week before the season opened , close to 30 nights. My old hounds and I are getting tired. Tons of fun !!!!!"






Jim Downs and his friend Jay Phelps showing off fresh hides and trying to make the Plott in the mix inconspicuous.


And finally, here's some red pups.




The Dam is "PR" Sissy Girl Brown and the Sire is "PR" Buckshots Smoke a Track Jack. They are with Richard Cornelius in Center Lisle. They were whelped on November 6, and should be ready for new homes by the time you read this, although he's pretty sure all will be spoken for by then. Richard says, "They're just now opening their eyes and starting to walk a little. I think I have more fun watching them grow than anything else."

Call me, write me, or email me with your upcoming events, event results, new titles, upcoming litters and other news and pictures. I especially need to hear from you beagle people! No matter what you chase with your hounds, NYHCA has your back in Albany. Every houndsman and houndswoman in NY should be a member. To join, visit our website at www.nyhoundsmen.org for more information, or just send a check with your contact info to NYHCA; P.O. Box 72; Walworth, NY; 14568. Dues are $10 for a full year for individuals; $5 for youth 16 or under at the time you join; family $15; hound or hunting club/organization $25.