Letter to the editor: Trapping, hound hunting cruel

I recently became aware that Vermont’s Silvio O. Conte National Wildlife Refuge allows both the hounding of bears, bobcats, coyotes and other wildlife, as well as the use of leghold and body crushing Conibear kill traps. Hounding and trapping conflict with what should be the purpose of Refuge lands: to conserve wildlife in the midst of our planet facing its sixth mass extinction.Hounding and trapping results in injuring or killing not only the targeted victims, but non-targeted animals as well. Hunting and … (read more)

Many of us in Vermont are not looking forward to the bear hunt that begins on September 1st and runs through mid November. It’s one of the longest in the country. Vermont allows bears to be pierced with arrows, shot from trees, hunted with packs of hounds … (read more)

I would like to reply to some of the assertions made by Alana Stevenson in her letter to the editor in the March 4 Addison Independent (“Hound hunting for the few at expense of many”). I am not a hound hunter. I am, however, a game warden retired from a W … (read more)

There is a bill in the House, H. 172, that will ban bear hounding and I ask that everyone support it. There is also a bill, H. 316, that I hope can be expanded to include control of all dogs used for hounding, not just bear hounds, but hunting dogs who ch … (read more)

Senator Chris Bray’s legislative bill to control bear hounds shows he has no understanding of what hunting with hounds entails. The hounds go where the bear goes, the houndsmen have no ability to control where the bear takes the hounds, regardless of prop … (read more)

MONTPELIER — Five months after a pair of hikers and their puppy were attacked by bear-hunting hounds in the Green Mountain National Forest in Goshen, the Senate Committee on Natural Resources and Energy has taken up a wide-ranging Fish & Wildlife omnibus … (read more)

The negative language that has been added to S.321 threatens both the hunting community and the integrity of the Fish and Wildlife Department. Senator Chris Bray stated on the record that he doesn’t believe these are attacks on hunting. If this concerns y … (read more)

I am writing concerning the ongoing coverage of the outrageous incident of bear hounds attacking an out-of-state couple and their dog in Ripton. This story, from the standpoint of a civilized society, is alarming on so many levels. As stated in the Indepe … (read more)

Editor’s note: This story is second in a series. The first, “Bear-hunting hounds attack hikers and pup,” was published on October 31, 2019. VERMONT — Members of the bear-hound hunting community, along with state officials, have expressed shock over an Oct … (read more)

RIPTON — On Saturday, Oct. 19, around mid-day, a pack of bear hunting dogs attacked two hikers and their puppy on the Catamount Trail in the Green Mountain National Forest near the Ripton-Goshen border.   Former Ripton resident Meryl Siegman, 65, and her … (read more)