When hunters dump their dogs
'Attack' shines light on North Fork beagle problem
3 comments below
One of four stray beagles picked up by police and dropped off at the Southold animal shelter this week, the same week an Orient woman reported she was chased by a pack of the hunting dogs.
But just after 11 p.m. Saturday night, as she was taking her dogs for a walk outside her parents' Orient Point home, that's exactly what happened to her.
"My dogs woke me up at about 11:15 p.m. to go out," she said. "So I went out with them on a leash, and I saw the motion light on the garage come on.
North Fork Animal Welfare League executive director Gillian Wood with a pack of beagles in January 1999, when nearly 40 of the abandoned dogs ended up at the Southold shelter during rabbit hunting season.
Ms. Faszczewski, 61, said she couldn't tell how many dogs were running toward her, but she could tell that they were beagles. She said she and her young dogs -- a black labrabor and a labrador-bulldog mix -- ran back into the house, just in time for the beagles to jump at the back door and break a bottom panel.
"They were barking furiously, then they ran off," she said. "People just drop these dogs off and leave them. I'm sure they come from the city, most likely. They must [have been] treated very badly."
In the late 1990s and early 2000s, Ms. Glantzman said, kennel workers would see a "whole pen full of beagles" in the after-hours drop-off room used by police officers.
"We would often see 30 at a time instead of four or five," she said. "The dogs get lost, and the hunters leave them behind."
Gillian Pultz, North Fork Animal Welfare League's executive director, said that the shelter nowadays takes in an average of six beagles per rabbit season, which runs from November through February. She said most hunters leave the dogs because they can't find them and are pressed to return home. Sometimes they come to the shelter to reclaim dogs.
Kent Animal Shelter Lisa Lewin said that the Calverton kennel experiences a similar yearly phenomenon with beagles.
"We had one last week and we have one right now," she said on Tuesday. "Hunters will occasionally come to us and say, 'If you don't take my dog, I'm going to shoot it in the head. So we take them."
Back in Southold, Ms. Pultz said the beagle problem has eased since she started her job in 1995. After two dead beagles were found on the very first day of one rabbit season in the late-1990s, the league launched an advertising campaign, calling the hunting season "beagle season."
"We asked hunters to be more responsible," Ms. Pultz said. "They began to respond over the years."
The majority of beagles still show up in Orient, due to the open spaces, Ms. Pultz said.
Just this week a male and female pair of 1-year-old beagles, named Reeses and Pieces by kennel workers, were found in Orient. In hardy condition, they got to hang outside with another new arrival -- a 2-year-old with light-brown coloring named Wilber, also found in Orient.
Five-year-old Wilma was found around the same time as those three, also in Peconic. Due to a kennel cough, Wilma had to be kept in a room inside the shelter. But even locked in isolation, the tail-wagging dog seemed happy to be there.
"She's very friendly, she knows how to sit," said Ms. Glantzman, adding that all the beagles will soon be up for adoption. "True, they're hunting dogs -- they're either crated or they're outside hunting -- and none come spayed or neutered. But they're wonderful little dogs. We usually have no problem placing them."
Due to the good condition the dogs are usually in when they end up at the shelter, Ms. Glantzman said she doesn't think they're left alone outside for very long.
"I'm sure if they're in Orient for any length of time, they'll find some garbage to eat," she said.
Even so, Ms. Glantzman said she still gets upset that these dogs -- generally loyal and sweet -- are left behind in the first place.
"It is disturbing," said Ms. Glantzman, looking through a glass window at the enthusiastic Wilma. "When they come in, they have their license tags on, but none are micro-chipped. We don't know who they belong to, so we can't really do anything about it."
Though still shaken by what she believes was a stray beagle attack, Ms. Faszczewski said she was more concerned that there doesn't seem to be a solution to stop the continuing abandonment of the breed.
"I grew up in Orient, and I've never run into that problem before," she said. "I just think it's a cruel way of doing things."
eschultz@timesreview.com
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3 comments found
beagles : 1/31/2010
Although I quit hunting small game over 50 years ago, I still believe our laws allow hunting on state owned land with permits or private property with permission of the owner. That said I believe if your hunting is for food for your family or other less fortunate families then it would be okay with me. However, killing for the sake of killing is a load of crap used to satisfy one's macho ego.
beagles left behind : 1/29/2010
not all hunters leave the beagles behind but then again who did?i don't think the story was to attack all hunters! just the ones that do leave these dogs behind.and the story did not accuse the hunters back in the90's of killing these dogs did it.
Hunters : 1/28/2010
Another case of idiots blaming hunters for everything! Perhaps you would be happier if the hunters were gone and then we coud have a coyote attack like in westchester yesterday? Really? Do you think that a hunter is goind to threaten to shoot their own companion in the head? Hunters work many hours to train their dogs. not shoot them.
