looduskalender.ee

In the new Hunting Act battue hunting and use of dogs is allowed for boar hunting. Last year it was prohibited. Now conditions have changed and the belief is that hunting with dogs will allow more boars to be shot in less time. But it is not stated what kinds of dogs can be used. The behaviours of various dog breeds are however dangerously different.

 

Helen Arusoo: At the ASF conference it was said that an aggressive dog can pursue a sow for up to 20 kilometres. So it moves unallowably widely in plague times.

 

Helen Arusoo: Ragne, you challenged the hunters at the hunters’ ASF conference – would they be prepared to train their dogs? Meaning that on command the dog stops pursuing the boar. They were rather silent.

 

Andres Lillemäe: You won’t retrain a Laika-type dog.

 

Ragne Oja:  I know myself that a laika cannot be trained.  Now it is a matter for the consciences of hunters if they go hunting with a dog that pursues a boar, or not. In a longer perspective I suggest that work tests for dogs might be discussed.

 

Andres Lillemäe: You forestalled me, work tests should be done. Now those dogs that are worthy of a first-second class diploma and of whom the hunters are proud because they pursue the animal and attack a boar, they cannot be used. They should be left out of the hunt and  lower rated dogs that won’t attack but just bark should be used. At the same time they drive the boar to go on.

 

Vahur Sepp:  I have always stood against aggressive dogs in hunting. When I was working as a hunter I hunted boars with a dachshund. At that time boars didn’t run from dogs. Boars started running away from dogs when laikas were brought in from Siberia. Laikas are Siberian dogs and should stay in Siberia. Estonia has a quite different landscape, we should treasure our Estonian hound dogs and the other dogs that we have. But now some kind of bear dogs and other dogs are brought in from all over the world, I cannot even name them.

 

Ragne Oja: An ordinary ”Pontu” dog should be used for hunting now!

 

Andres Lillemäe: The Laika men will kill me for talking like this but it should really be changed. I have always been against the laikas. In boar hunting we should use dogs that won’t attack.

 

Helen Arusoo: Hunting with Laikas is not prohibited this year?

 

Vahus Sepp:  No. This spreads the pest for sure. I know a number of Laika men who rush through 4-5 hunting groups day after day, with the dog along in its cage. The dog is busy with all kinds of boars… and the dog itself is a pest carrier.

 

Tõnis Korts: Directives about  hunting with dogs need a more precise approach. We all share this point of view but how to realise them today? We are not present at the decision-makings, regrettably. Our role in today’s  society is to advise and recommend. As far as agreements with government go, we ask our organisations to cooperate - ask them. We can achieve something only by persuasion – not by threatening. Any threat will automatically be countered with opposition.

 

Today green light has been given to a quite different behaviour. The Hunters’ Society has all the time tried to make clear that hunting is a science quite as forestry and agriculture and needs the corresponding approach, not rushed decisions. If that is not learnt from this crisis, things will stay as they are.