University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 27, Ed. 1 Friday, January 29, 1999 Page: 3 of 6
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University Press • Friday, January 29,1999 • Page 3
Running been in East Texas
Danni Martin, a local
game hunter, is shown with
his son Jake. Martin and
his sons hunt on Type II
leases across the state.
Terr and phoros
hy Paw French
Can law breaking be just a ‘rite of passage’?
JASPER — Is it a traditional rite of passage
between fathers and sons or a lesson in breaking
the law?
“My dad did it, my.grandpa did it, and my sons
ought to be able to do it,” hunters in East Texas
say.
Others feel less sentimental. Game wardens,
property owners and those who pay for private
deer leases believe the time has passed for the
method of hunting deer by tracking and driving
them with dogs, which is illegal in the State of
Texas.
That was not always true.
Fewer than 10 years ago, East Texas remained
the only part of the state where running dogs for
deer was legal. But in 1990, this method of hunting
became illegal, even in our area.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Department officials
cite two reasons for the prohibition: decreasing
deer population and increasing conflict.
Bill Magee, captain game warden for the law
enforcement office in Jasper, oversees an area cov-
ering five counties: Jasper, Newton, San Augustine,
Shelby and Sabine. Magee says a wildlife biologist
working out of Jasper concluded from research
that in areas where dogs were run, the number of
"deer — by hunting or migration — “habitually low-
ered from year to year.”
In the state, however, dogs can be used legally
for hunting most other game. People run dogs to
track squirrel, raccoon and rabbits. Game wardens
say that hasn’t created the same problems.
“Those animals move different from deer,”
Magee says. “A dog chases a squirrel or raccoon
into a tree, a rabbit runs in circles, but a deer will
run for miles.”
By using dogs, hunters can drive deer from their
habitat. In other words, deer naturally stay in one '
area, where they feed and raise their young.
Because of their running habits, when deer are
pursued by dogs they literally run out of their habi-
tat and their numbers decrease.
In addition to the decreasing number of deer,
the fact that they run such distances creates anoth-
er, more serious problem. As the population of
East Texas has increased, the availability of land
areas large enough to run deer has been restricted
by the influx of people residing in the area and the
building of roadways. Consequently, the deer are
often run onto private property or highways where
they can easily be shot by waiting hunters. These
types of hunters are often referred to as “standers”
by game wardens.
“All that land around Lake Rayburn used to be
hunting land,” says Joe, a hunter from Southeast
Texas. “Now the majority of land available is pri-
vate deer leases or Type II.”
“Joe” did not want to be identified and his real
name is withheld.
The Texas Parks & Wildlife Department leases
tracks of land from timber companies or individu-
als called Type II leases. With a hunting license
and an additional $40, a permit can be obtained for
access to several hundred thousand acres of public
hunting land across the state.
Groups or individuals contact the timber com-
panies or property owners for private leases on
which to hunt as well. Problems have occurred
when dogs run deer past these still hunters on
Type II or private leases where they have feeders
and stands.
A still hunter is one who sets up a feeding area
on a lease to attract deer and waits in a stand for
them to come to the feeders. The hunters then
shoot the animals.
When running or driving deer was legal, if a still
hunter shot a deer being run by dogs, it was under-
stood that he would split the meat or give the dog’s
owner a ham from the deer. This is still true today,
but the unwritten courtesy among hunters is not
always followed.
“A dog tracks one deer. They woij’t run a herd
Of deer,” Joe says. “A dog may have gone two or
three miles running that deer. If they (still hunters)
would just leave the deer and the dog alone, or kill
the deer and leave the dog alone, the dog will go
back to the place where it was let out.”
Joe says some people shoot the dogs and take
the deer before the dog hunters can get to the site.
Shooting someone’s hunting dog in East Texas
holds about the same emotional weight of offense
as stealing a man’s horse does in West Texas.
Outside the areas of Newton, Jasper, San
Augustine, Shelby and Sabine counties, the majori-
ty of outdoorsmen follow the new law. They still
hunt or walk for deer, but use their dogs for legal
game hunting only.
The practice of running deer has been almost
abandoned in Northeast Texas. But there are
pockets in the East Texas deep woods where peo-
ple from Timpson to the coastline run dogs
throughout deer season. Many hunt without any
regard for modern game laws.
Using dogs to flush deer through the thick of
the woods and into the sight of a hunter’s gun was
probably commonplace when East Texas was
Spanish territory. In this vast area of tall trees and
dense underbrush, generation after generation of
people have adapted to and been developed by the
elements that surround them. They have fierce
pride in their ability to adapt and live from the
land. Some of these people need these skills in an
area where employment opportunities are few.
After all, the industry in East Texas is pretty much
limited historically to the timber industry and to
the oil fields.
An advantage existed in tracking and running
deer with dogs when people needed to provide
food for survival. Hunters still eat the game. But
that is seldom true today, and hunting with dogs is
more a tradition for people whose “people” have
always hunted this way.
Those who run deer frequently hunt in groups.
They claim it is rare for one person in the group to
shoot his limit on a hunt. The kill of the day
belongs to all of them.
“It’s butchered and divided up into packages
and numbered for however many hunters there
are,” Joe says.
“Then everyone draws a number to get their
meat.”
Other outdoorsmen say they wouldn’t want the
meat from a deer that has been chased by dogs as
opposed to a deer that wanders to a feed stand
without fear. They say a frightened, pursued deer
will emit a chemical throughout it’s body that
taints the flavor of the meat.
Game warden Capt. Bill Magee says 70 percent
to 80 percent of the people in the area hunt within
the law.
“When the prohibition took effect, they put
their dogs away,”he says.
However, of the 20 percent to 30 percent of the
people hunting illegally, many are criminally abu-
sive. They make threats or physically assault prop-
erty owners, other hunters, or game wardens.
“It’s a regular deal that we have roads tacked,
fences cut, fights and threats.” Magee says. “I’m
not saying every illegal dog hunter does these
things, but many of them do.”
People outside of this five-county area may not
be aware that this practice continues. Many travel
from Beaumont, Houston and other areas to hunt
on Type II or private leases in the lakes area. Not
all of those who cross paths with a dog hunter will
be facing abusive “outlaw hunters” as they are
known.
Although many people “will cuss game wardens
from the moment they arrive on the scene until
they are gone,” Magee says, “only a small percent-
age of those still hunting deer with dogs are vio-
lent.” Those few keep the 11 wardens under Bill
Magee’s control busy almost daily from October
through January
“Bill’s got his hands full down there,” says game
warden Capt. Larry Hand. Hand oversees a district
in upper East Texas where complaints occur once
or twice in a season. “His (Magee’s) district is the
only one where this is still a problem.”
Incidents of violence and threats against game
wardens, property owners and other hunters were
so numerous in recent years that Texas Parks and
Wildlife law enforcement officers documented the
problem in an undercover investigation called
Operation Dalmatian.
Game wardens complete the same law enforce-
ment training for state accreditation as policemen.
In combination with law enforcement training,
they complete courses in game identification, self
defense, boating safety and other skills needed for
the job.
Game wardens are peace officers, and, in some
See HUNTING, page 6
t
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Dorman, Billie. University Press (Beaumont, Tex.), Vol. 75, No. 27, Ed. 1 Friday, January 29, 1999, newspaper, January 29, 1999; Beaumont, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth500830/m1/3/: accessed July 18, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Lamar University.