The Mountain Times - Volume 48, Number 46: November 13-19, 2019

4 • LOCAL NEWS
The Mountain Times • Nov. 13-19, 2019
Bear-hound attack shocks hunting community
By Christopher Ross/Addison Independent
Editor’s note: This story is second
in a series. The first, “Bearhunting
hounds attack hikers
and pup,” was published in the
Mountain Times, Nov. 6.
Members of the bear-hound
hunting community, along with
state officials, have expressed
shock over an Oct. 19 incident
on the Catamount Trail in Ripton,
in which five bear-hounds
attacked a couple and their
puppy.
Such an incident has never
happened before, say supporters,
who characterize their sport
as having a positive culture
with strict practices and high
standards.
Brandon resident Wayne
Newton, whose bear-hounds
were involved with the incident,
has been charged with a criminal
violation of 10 App. V.S.A. §
7.63a, which reads, “A person
shall not take black bear with the
aid of dogs unless the person is
in control of the dog or dogs.”
According to Vermont statutes,
“Control of Dog/Dogs” means
“the transportation, loading
or unloading of dogs from
vehicle(s); the handling, catching,
restraining or releasing
dogs; and the use of telemetry/
GPS to locate or track dogs.”
“This aggressive behavior
of the dogs represents a failure
of the dog owner to properly
handle and restrain the dogs,”
wrote Vermont Game Warden
Dale Whitlock in his
incident report.
Newton has been
fined $262 for the
violation, with a fivepoint
penalty on his
hunting license.
In recent exchanges
for this article,
Newton was thoughtful and
apologetic, but he ultimately
declined to comment for this
story.
Aberration
Forrest Hammond, a wildlife
biologist and black bear project
leader at the Vermont Department
of Fish and Wildlife, was
shocked to learn of the incident.
“I’ve been in bear management
for 40 years, working with
houndsmen, and I have never
heard of a bear-hound biting a
person,” he said. “The hounds
are usually very focused on
treeing bears and they usually
ignore everything else” — including
other dogs.
Hammond compared the
incident to someone getting
struck by lightning.
“I view this as an aberration,
and so I’m not too worried about
it.”
“Houndsmen are an important part
of our hunting heritage and I would
hate to lose them,” said wildlife
biologist Forrest Hammond.
Butch Spear, president of the
Vermont Bearhound Association,
has been hunting with
bear-hounds for 15 years — and
with hounds generally for 57.
“I’ve never heard of anything
like this before,” he said. “Bearhounds
like people.”
For more than a decade, the
Vermont Bearhound Association
has participated in the annual
Dead Creek Wildlife Day in
Addison, and Spear has brought
his dogs along.
“A thousand kids touch them
and there’s never been a problem,”
he said.
Vermont Game Warden Dale
Whitlock interviewed Newton
the day after the incident.
“(He) said he wished it had
never happened, and that
his dogs had never done this
before,” Whitlock wrote in his
incident report. “Wayne said his
dogs are friendly and
he did not believe
they would harm
anyone.”
In an Oct. 26
phone interview,
Whitlock, too, expressed
surprise.
“I’ve been a game
warden since 1996 and I’ve
never seen anything like this,”
he said.
Bear-hound hunting
“If you want to know the truth
about bear-hound hunting, call
me and I’ll take you out,” Spear
said in an open invitation to
the public. “Because you won’t
know until you go. Even if you
only want to find something bad
about it, come and see.”
Spear, 66, lives in Orange
County and tries to hunt four
days a week during the season.
Much of the pleasure of bearhound
hunting comes from
working with his dogs — and of
course the thrill of the chase.
“The dogs are always excited
to go,” he said.
On a typical hunting trip,
Spear explained, he’ll load up
to six hounds (the maximum
allowed by law) into the custommade
plywood “dog boxes” on
the back of his pickup truck and
drive around back roads until
the hounds detect a bear scent.
Alternatively, “if there’s an oak
ridge or a beech ridge where I
know a bear has been working,
I might walk the dogs into the
woods,” he said.
When they’ve picked up the
scent, the hounds will bark in a
different way.
“Sit in the front seat of this
truck and you’ll know when
those hounds smell a bear,” he
said. “You’ll be asking ‘What the
(heck) is going on?”
When they’ve picked up
a “hot” scent, Spear lets the
hounds loose so they can follow
it.
Like many bear-hound hunters,
Spear uses a handheld GPS
device to follow the hounds,
which all wear tracking collars.
Spear’s bear-hounds have
occasionally gotten three or four
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