Judgment on use of vehicles and dogs in deer hunting stayed

Ripley County judge’s ruling on state regulations regarding use of motorized vehicles and dogs in deer hunting as too vague is stayed by Missouri Court of Appeals.

JEFFERSON CITY Mo – The Missouri Court of Appeals filed an order on Nov. 12 in which it stayed the August ruling by Ripley County Circuit Judge Robert Smith that three state regulations prohibiting the use of motorized vehicles and dogs in deer hunting are too vague to be constitutional.

The Court of Appeal’s order makes the Ripley County judge’s ruling unenforceable pending the resolution of the appeal.

The Missouri Department of Conservation filed an appeal on the judge’s ruling with the Missouri Court of Appeals in September.

At issue are Missouri Wildlife Code regulations that prohibit the use of “motor-driven air, land or water conveyances” while deer hunting and regulations stating that deer may not be “hunted, pursued, taken or killed with the aid of dogs, in use or possession.”

The ruling followed a case involving two Ripley County hunters who sued in February 2010 over the regulations.

The appeal process continues and the MDC expects a decision in the next several months.