By MATT LINDSEY

POTSDAM -- The state Department of Environmental Concern (DEC) says it supports both hunters and their dogs as well as landowners who may not want dogs running on their property and understands conflicts sometimes arise between these parties.

The DEC clarified its position after a Lisbon hunter who uses hunting dogs to track and kill coyotes had a recent quarrel with a Potsdam resident after his dogs allegedly kept roaming his land

Joe Babbitt of Lisbon came under fire recently after Ryan Gagner called police because Babbitt’s dogs kept roaming his land, scaring his animals and child. Babbitt says reducing the area coyote population is important, even though some people are irritated when his hunting dogs run onto their land.

Gagner was charged with criminal possession of stolen property for removing the collar from one of Babbitt’s dogs because he was sick of them running on his land.

The DEC has now weighed in taking somewhat of a neutral stance.

DEC says hunters utilizing dogs during hunting occasionally run their dogs “off leash” in order to find and track game, according to Benning DeLaMater, DEC Public Information Officer. For the purposes of the Environmental Conservation Law, DEC does not consider dogs actively used for hunting to be at large, even if a town leash law is in effect.

Dogs being used lawfully on one piece of property sometimes cross property boundaries and enter onto private or posted lands.

“The DEC does not consider inadvertent boundary crossing by a dog in pursuit of game to be trespassing under Environmental Conservation Law when the hunter released the dog in a location where the hunter was legally entitled to hunt,” DeLaMater says.

However, if a hunter were to release a dog in a situation where it was foreseeable that the dog would cross onto property where the hunter had no right to hunt, the hunter could be charged with trespassing, he said.

Factors that could be considered during the investigation include: type of game being hunted, nature of the game animal's trail or patterns, the size of the parcel being lawfully hunted, the hunter’s proximity to posted property, and controls used by the hunter to prevent the dog from crossing property boundaries.

A hunter who intentionally releases a dog onto posted lands commits the same trespass offense as a hunter who intentionally shoots and kills an animal on posted property, DEC says.

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