What would you do in this situation????

[Lawlers]

Went hunting last weekend. Started out good. Knew we would find hogs fast. This is a low fenced place but tons of hogs and it's pretty big. My best start dog was "treed" on the gps but about 1.5 miles so I went out to the CR and got 750 yrds parallel to the collar. Position stayed the same over an hour. I realized the signal was on a property I didn't know the owner. It was a HUGE open oat field. I called for my dog and still no change in signal. The worst thought entered my mind thinking a hog killed him but I wasn't given up. A county cop stopped, about 1am and I asked him to go get my dog. He told me no and left. I called the game warden, no answer. A few minutes later an older man pulled up. He was rude, and asking alot of questions. He told me he had been watching me for thirty min through night vision. I tried to explain to him what place I was hunting and where my dog was. After about five minutes my buddy said we got GPS sir, we know at least our collar is in that field. He said follow him. He drove up 230 yrds parallel to the signal. He wouldn't let us go in the field. He kept saying nothing was out there. We showed him the gps and after 45 minutes be finally said go ahead. He got really nice a few minutes later. There was another truck, his friends and family loaded with people and it pulled up as I walked out in the field. I got to the signal, my dog was dead, easy to see he had been shot with a small caliber rifle. I took him to the truck and the guy said a hog killed him bc he saw him catch the hog. We did a biopsy. It was obvious. All of a sudden the guy invited us to hunt his propert but denied killing or even carrying a rifle. He said they were out shooting hogs with shot guns. Now I'm stuck, if I press charges, what's the law EXACTLY? Should I press charges? Will be do it again? Was it an accident? Maybe they were shooting deer illegally ?!?!? What would you do ?? And ya know, if they would have been honest and didn't jack me around for over an hour I wouldn't even consider pressing charges. But now I'm really freaking angry and my dogs mean alot to me

[fox hunter]

things like this give me a burning desire

[Lawlers]

Ya know what makes it even worse....this guy has hunted hogs for years. He use to run dogs with my friend's dad. He knows sometimes dogs go and you can't stop them. What else y'all think???

[Hagerman]

You feel he's lying about shooting the dog and considering becoming involved with him?Where in Texas are you? Was he the land owner?

[briarpatch]

I am no lawyer, but I doubt you would have any luck pressing charges. You do not know which of the family shot the dog and the guy may be only defending a family member who did. Could they argue that the dog was chasing livestock, etc.?

While it is evident that he is not completely forthcoming that is understandable. It may well be that he knows he is wrong, but just can't bring himself to admit it. It seems that y ou have gained permission to hunt his property so perhaps that is the only consolation. FORGIVE AND FORGET.

briarpatch

[DerekE]

I hate that you lost your dog and I would be just as mad as you. I think if you pressed charges he would just say the dog was chasing cows or something. He had night vision, maybe he was calling coyotes and mistook the dog, who knows. Either way it sounds like he regrets shooting the dog now since he said you could hunt his place. Shooting the dog was probably a spur of the moment decision and he made the wrong one. I agree with briarpatch, probably should write off the loss and hunt the property. If you're like most TX hunters you could use more hunting country anyway. By the way, Texas isn't worth a crap for us dog hunters.. IMO. They say everything is bigger here and that includes the A-holes.
Derek

[kordog]

the fact that he had night vision should have been even more reason to know it was a hound . plus those garmin collars blink red dont forget . if he is really sorry id give him the option to confess and apologize or the law would be called . cant start a friendship started out on a lie.if you shot his livestock on the other side of the fence what do you suppose would happen.its your dog so its really your call.

[Lawlers]

Y'all are all making good points. To anwser some of the questions no he couldnt be chasing cattle. This field had no cattle and the filed is an open oat field several hundred yards. I honestly think The guy was shooting deer illegally. But, he said at one point that " oh yea, I saw him and a hog, the hog musta got him". He said he ran dogs all the time a few years back so the pieces of his story don't really fall together. Or he thought it was a couple of stupid kids he was going to teach a lesson to, but all before we told him we had already called the game warden. That's when his attitude changed. It's a hard case. Gonna call the guy soon and ask for the truth. Money won't replace that dog and honestly, I dont want to hunt a place where 8 people drive around all hours of the night shooting stuff that they can't see. Kinda freaky if ya think about it. I don't believe it wouldn't happen again

We hunt several places medina, and freer county mostly

[Gatorman]

Let me start out by saying I am very sorry for the loss of your dog. you can never replace a great dog and they are surely missed. with that said, IMO, I could never hunt a mans land that shot and killed my dog. here in Florida we have what they call the hunters resposibility law, which is simply, if my dog gets on some one elses land and they call the game warden, I get fined 500.00 but unless my dog is trying to kill or harm the land owner's live stock he does not have the right to kill my dog... now with that said, it is hard to prove such a thing. in your case, it think I would have pushed the issue that night ,, went ahead and got the game warden on his way and tried to keep as many of the people their as i could... now time has went by and every person involved will have all there stories strait if you know what I mean and it will be vertually impossiable to prove. but at the least, I would let the SOB know that I know he killed my dog, and just see what he had to say, it is hard to kill a dog on accident with night vision in an oat field, unless he was shooting at the hog, and hit the dog. which in that case I would have just told you that was what happend and let the chips fall were they may.... but this is all just my openion..

[Lawlers]

Poncho was by far my best male start dog. He was my wife's favorite, my daughters favorite, he was easy to handle and never showed aggression except to a hog. He was the biggest BMC I had ever seen. Well over 80lbs and very tall. I'm gonna miss my boy. The good news.....we bred Poncho with our big female, Sadie and she should be having puppies within the next couple weeks. God never leaves me hanging. Love ya Poncho!!!

[catdogs]

http://missoulian.com/news/state-and-re ... 9b481.html