To whom it may concern:

I'm writing on behalf of myself, my Bent Place subdivision, Kenwood subdivision, and other people in Wake County about an ongoing situation regarding the use of dogs for hunting, and the need to redesignate game lands surrounding Falls Lake to a bow-only hunting zone . 

In regard to the use of hunting dogs, we would like to request your assistance to help stop and ban the use of hunting dogs in public game lands.  The use of hunting dogs affect other non-dog hunters by not giving them a fair chance to hunt.  It also impacts auto drivers when deer are chased and run out of there habitat onto the roads and highways causing accidents, damaging other vehicles and possible injury.  As a result, this affects both car and medical insurance companies, resulting in higher premiums.  It also results in an increase in government expenses to clean up the highway, resulting in higher taxes.  In addition to these expenses, hunting dogs run into private property chasing deer.  There are some hunters that go into a neighborhood and release their dogs so the dogs will chase the deer back into the game lands.  The use of dogs for hunting, impacts the serenity and safety of residents’ private property.

A major concern, is the treatment of hunting dogs.  There are many reports that indicate they are often abused, beaten, abandoned, and starved as an incentive to hunt the deer for food.  These hunting dogs are so skinny that you can see their ribs and hip bones.  They are shoved into tight kennels and live in the cold, heat and rain year-round.  They endure a very sad, poor quality of life.  

In regard to surrounding Falls Lake game lands, we would like to request that they be redesignated to bow-only hunting.  

We would request Wake County hunting laws be updated to reflect the immediate and permanent banning of using dogs for hunting and redesignation of the Falls Lake game lands to bow-only hunting.  

Whereas: The owners of private property posses rights regarding the enjoyment, use, safety and peace of their property that legally surpass the privileges of hunters when the pursuit of the sport deprives private property owners of rights, and

Whereas: Hunters using loose dogs, by their own admission, cannot hunt without their dogs trespassing and doing damage to private property, and are therefore undertaking a sport that they know beforehand, will at some point, involve breaking the law, and

Whereas: It is often not possible for private property owners to prosecute for trespassing or sue for damages because dogs are unattended by hunters when damage occurs, despite the hunter being aware of the expectation of damage and trespass when he undertakes loose dog hunting, and

Whereas: There exists specifically within the population of loose dog hunters a large and ungovernable contingent that does not respect private property and believes, wrongly, that they have a right to terrorize and intimidate their way onto private property despite the wishes of the property owner, and

Whereas: Loose dog hunting is responsible for the majority of hunting complaints from property owners regarding trespassing, threats of bodily injury, threats of arson, harassment, animal cruelty, and livestock injury and killing, and

Whereas: Only 6% of the population in North Carolina have a paid hunting license.  Note, there were no stats available for just Wake County.  Nationwide, the percentage of the population that hunts has been steadily declining over the past few decades.  

Whereas: Wake County’s population in 2000 was 627,846 according to the US Census. In 2010, it was 906,875. In 2022, it increased to 1,2 million; a 29.6% increase from 2010. For comparison, the US population grew 7.7% and North Carolina’s population grew 11.7% during this same 12-year period. Estimated population for Wake County in early 2025 is approximately 1,261,494. Last year’s county’s population growth rate was 2.36%, averaging 29,100 new county residents annually.  Wake County has a larger population than Mecklenburg County. It is the largest county in North Carolina and has seen a 39.1% growth since 2010. There is a growing conflict with hunters and their dogs as North Carolina becomes more populated, and

Whereas: The NC Wildlife Resource Commission can only issue fines if the registered private property is posted every 200 Yards with no trespassing signs. It is very easy for the hunters to deface or remove signs, removing all authority from the NC Wildlife Commission, forcing the property owner to bear the cost to repost their property and allowing the hunters to grant self-endowed immunity for trespassing and poaching, and

Whereas: Loosed hunting dogs are often abused, abandoned, have a poor quality of life and are not neutered, resulting in unwanted puppies and a greater cost for the communities' animal control and increased disease and parasite transmission, and

Whereas: Dogs set loose beyond the hunters control cannot be provided food or water by their owner and often become lost, injured and/or inhumanely dehydrated and starved, and

Whereas: The practice of hunting deer with loose dogs is detrimental to the health of the deer population, because dogs cannot be retrieved unless a kill is made, even if quarry is young or it is desirable to be left alive in the population, and

Whereas: Modern loose dog hunting involves turning dogs loose with tracking collars, taking advantage of modern roads, technologies and vehicles, is unsportsmanlike, dishonors the historical hunting tradition, is unneighborly and inhumane, and

Whereas: Hunting deer with dogs has been banned since 2001 in adjacent Durham county.  The ban of dogs for hunting have also been implemented in the states of Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Washington, and Wyoming.  The states of Texas and West Virginia only allow the use of leashed dogs to track wounded deer.  

Whereas: Wake County Wildlife department only has two (2) officers to enforce hunting regulations. Being so short staffed, it is impossible for them to adequately and thoroughly investigate all hunting irregularities.

Whereas: The harassment from the dogs and hunters lowers the desirability, functionality, usability for raising livestock or fowl and sale value of private property and tax revenue, and

Whereas: The above-mentioned instances represent a significant monetary injury and harassment of the taxpayers and property owners of Wake County and create well documented evidence of widespread and habitual abuse of the privilege extended to loose dog hunters and fair justification for the permanent revocation of the privilege of loose dog hunting in Wake County. 

Whereas: Many of the Falls Lake areas are directly bordered by subdivisions and by public park property where families, children, hikers, and people walking their pets are present every day. With Wake County’s population growth and heavy recreational use of these parks, continuing to allow gun hunting in such close proximity is dangerous and irresponsible, and creates an unacceptable public-safety risk. Bow-only hunting is the only reasonable and defensible option under these current conditions.  

Therefore: We, the undersigned residents of Wake County, request that the Falls Lake game lands be redesignated for bow-only hunting.  We also request that the practice of hunting with loose dogs, having been deemed by us to be unacceptable, anti-social behavior that causes great damage, expense, harassment, animal abuse, and is undertaken by hunters with full knowledge and understanding that laws will be broken, property owners harassed and private property destroyed or livestock injured, be permanently banned in Wake County.  

We, the undersigned property owners living in the Bent Place and Kenwood Subdivision, along with other Wake County residents, hereby petition Wake County to ban the use of dogs for deer hunting and redesignate surrounding areas of Falls Lake to bow-only hunting.