Halifax County commissioners today decided to resubmit proposed hunting regulations which have a dog-hunting focus to its legislative delegation.
In 2020, County Manager Dia Denton told the board, the proposed regulations were passed on to State Representative Michael Wray and former Senator Toby Fitch. Commissioner Linda Brewer made the motion to resubmit them to Wray and Senator Bobby Hanig with a second cast by Sammy Webb.
The original 2020 version of the regulations had been passed on to the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission and since then there has been no action taken. “It’s sat there and nothing else happened,” Denton said.
Brewer asked if anyone has looked at the proposed regulations which essentially focus on hunters needing proof of permission when running dogs and also requiring 300 contiguous acres of land on which to run them.
There was no response to Brewer’s question.
“It has not gone away,” Brewer said of some of the complaints associated with the issue. “It is a problem. I don’t have an answer. I don’t know what the answer is.”
Commissioner Carolyn Johnson said the board has done just about everything it could do regarding the matter. “I don’t know what else we need to do. We did everything.”
Board Chair Vernon Bryant said the board has done its due diligence. “The main thing that has been mentioned is having Representative Wray and the new senator take a look at it and submit it to the new leadership. As far as doing anything else, we can tweak it, let the new commissioners (Webb and Chenoa Richardson Davis) look at it and send it in.”
Brewer said what she doesn’t want to see happen is an outright ban on dog hunting.
“We’re not looking to abolish hunting,” Bryant said. “We’re just trying to make it better.”
Denton explained to Davis that the biggest piece of the legislation the county wanted the state to address were the permission issue and the 300-acre issue.
“We don’t want them hunting with dogs unless they have written permission and 300 acres,” County Attorney Glynn Rollins said.
Johnson said hunting clubs in Hollister ask for permission.
Said Denton: “A few cause problems for everyone else.”
Johnson suggested letting Wray and Hanig know the proposal would be resubmitted.
