Leave ‘em leashed

• Removal of tracking collars not a major problem here, but it’s still against the law.

By JEFFERSON WEAVER
Staff Writer

Leave them alone.

That’s the advice Wildlife Enforcement officers give to anyone finding a dog with a radio-tracking collar. The devices help hunters keep track of far-ranging hunting dogs, and taking the device off the dog is a crime.

“In my personal experience,” Lt. Matt Long said, “we had more a problem with it in the mountains and the northeastern part of the state than around here. Still, it happens from time to time, and it’s illegal.”

Tracking collars are most often removed by frustrated hunters or landowners who kill unwelcome hunting dogs.

Sometimes the collars are removed by well-meaning people who think the dogs are lost and weighed down by the device.

Long said neither reason is legal.

“I understand a landowner’s frustration with having someone else’s dogs running across his land, but this isn’t the way to solve the problem,” Long said.

The officer said hunters have tracked transmitting collars to the “very hole where the dog or the collar was buried.

“When that happens,” Long said, “it can be doubly frustrating for the landowner – not only is he dealing with dogs he doesn’t want on his land, but he will be charged with a crime.”

N.C. General Statute 14-401.17 makes it unlawful to remove tracking or electronic collars from dogs. A first conviction is a Class Three misdemeanor, and second or subsequent crimes are Class Two misdemeanors. Conviction is punishable by fines up to $1,000.

“These collars are private property, just like the dog,” Long explained. “If you don’t have a reason to handle the dog, you shouldn’t do so.”

Bobby Allen of Allen’s Outdoor Supplies said his business sells replacement collars on a regular basis. A basic tracking collar costs $135, and tracking systems can cost from $500 to $1,000.

“We have some that are stolen, some where the dog’s killed – there’s a lot of reasons people come in to get new ones,” he said. “We had one fellow who was hunting recently and his dog got hit by a car. Somebody stopped and took the tracking collar, and just left the dog lying in the road.”

The tracking systems are popular with hunters of both large and small game, Allen said.

An avid dog hunter, Allen said he was glad to see the rules tightened on collar removal.

The East Coast Hunter’s Association, of which Allen is a member, lobbied the state for the new rules.

“We were glad to see it,” he said. “Good dogs aren’t cheap, but the collars get expensive, too.”