starving hunting dogs?

ok, i have a question about something that has been bothering me, and i want to know from people who hunt. before i go into this i want to say i am NOT against hunting or a peta freak by any means. i work at a state park and people call in all the time about starved hunting dogs. the park ranger says it's ok the owners starve them so they hunt better, and they will find their way back home. i just think this is wrong!! to starve them at all is wrong, isn't it? i googled everywhere to find out about starving hunting dogs and couldn't find anything! and i have even hunted, and my family does but have never heard of this. is this a normal practice and is it ok? i just want to know so i don't worry about it anymore. anyways, i thought i'd ask people that would know best.
no, people who live near the park call all the time, and tourists say they see them all the time. we have the name of a guy and he admits to doing it.
i personally think it is awful...and want to prove it to the park ranger who says it's ok...i'm tired of arguing w/him about it!
omg shano! thanks so much! i JUST asked another guy from work about it, and was about to post what he said! he said the dogs just run alot, so they look thin, which make the people think they are malnourished...he says if you just ran 20 miles you'd probably look like it too! hahaha! so, i can FINALLY not worry about it anymore!!! thanks so much!
but that dude is a weirdo...people say, the one who admits to doing it.

Public Comments

1. thats crap. people dont do that, thats not why the dogs hunt, its instinct. they dont hunt any better hungry. someone is feeding you a line.

2. Only ignorant trash does that. Not real hunters. It's not ok to starve pets, unless they're annoying cats who happen to be watching me right now. Yes, I hate you, but you can't read so ha.

3. Like Ryan said, Ignorant Trash. They are liable to do any d@mn thing. I have known of some idiotic-moron meth-heads in the neighborhood over the years that used to feed Pit Bulls gunpowder to make them meaner for fighting them. And yes I have seen some malnourished hunting dogs around my house that have come out of the river bottoms after their worthless masters got tired of looking for them and then abandoned them because they had to get back to the city to be at work on Monday. I have also had some of my own dogs stolen by the same worthless lot. The sorry @ssed b@st@rds all ought to be taken out, chained to a tree, fed gunpowder, starved, put in a cage to fight and then dumped off down in the same river bottoms where they abandon their dogs! Then maybe the dogs could make a meal of their former masters.

4. Are you sure the dogs aren't being fed? Are you sure they aren't just thin because of all the running they do. You have to remember that a good dog will hunt until its pads are bleeding. I have seen that plenty of times. If the guy is starving his dogs he is an idiot. He should be brought up on charges. I am guessing these dogs are hounds right? If so make sure that they arent just thin from doing what they love more than anything else.....Runnin their asses off.

5. people do not starve there dogs if they look thin it is because they have been hunting a lot most dogs enjoy this it is like a game 2 them and they get thin sometimes it is not people starving there digs u just have listened 2 someone ignorant and u r listening 2 them hope this helps ur outlook some most people who hunt with dogs look at them around the dog observe n u will c that i am correct on this subject

6. If you starve a Dog he is not going to Hunt worth a darn.* If the Dogs are taken out in training season and conditioned before Hunting season, they can appear to be malnourished, but they are just highly conditioned like an Athlete in training.* Nothing to be concerned about brother.* Hunter who hunts with three (3)* Beagle hound Dogs {ME}*

7. Okay, calm down

DOGS ARE NOT PEOPLE, which means they have different wants and desires and tolerances. Dogs decended from wolves remember, and wolves don't get fed 3 meals a day.

Dogs, like wolves, are genetically predispositioned to overstuff themselves with food (if it is in their belly other animals cannot take it and it won't spoil) and then to be lazy for a few days, and after that a dog can go more than a month without eating, because as wolves that is exactly what they had to do. In reality, the average wolf pack only successfully kills a large animal every 2 weeks. individual animals may manage to eat a fieldmouse or something here and there, but they go for long periods of famine and then a big feast.

That is the way they are made.

I also suspect both you and the tourists aren't used to seeing dogs in good shape, especially dogs with short hair. look at top athletes in long distance running, look how skinny they are! That is because as americans we are all fat and lazy and our dogs are fat and lazy too. If you can't see or feel the ribs on a dog, the dog is overweight. http://petcaretips.net/overweight_dogs.html The only reason you don't see the ribs on healthy people is our pectoral muscles and abdominal muscles cover them up, for a dog, his pecs and abdominals are located differently, so you can see the sides of his ribs quite easily.

look at how skinny this human runner is, the only real bulk he (she?) has is pectoral, which as i said before, don't hide the ribs on dogs

http://garmin.blogs.com/.shared/image.html?/photos/uncategorized/runner01_1.jpg

8. I've never herd of any respectable hunter doing that to their hunting dogs

9. I hunt and i don't use dogs. If i did they would be well fed. I have no plans whatsoever to use dogs in the future.

People who do that are not hunters. They're a$$ holes!