http://www.nationalparkstraveler.com/2009/09/dog-owner-cited-after-pit-bull-attacks-deer-great-smoky-mountains-national-park4605

Just another reason to keep your dog on a leash anywhere you go-especially SP's and NP's.

Glad to see the owner was cited.

They were kind. It's local policy that they (the state) shoot dogs caught chasing deer. A friend when I was a kid came home to her dog's collar hanging on the door knob along with a citation.

I hope that the owner does jail time and that the dog is euth'd - there is absolutely no excuse for that to happen.

We have the same law here, Melissa. I agree with it too. Like Will said, there's absolutely no excuse for that to happen. None. And I like how they generalized the dog as a 100lb pit bull. lol No real APBT would be 100lbs.

 Quote: keleah stull

We have the same law here, Melissa. I agree with it too. Like Will said, there's absolutely no excuse for that to happen. None. And I like how they generalized the dog as a 100lb pit bull. lol No real APBT would be 100lbs.

Maybe he was rolling after the deer?

Seriously though I never go by weight anymore to say who is and who isn't part of what breed. There is alot of variation in dog breeds. I've seen 45 lb GSDs and I've seen 120lb GSDs we can debate about if they're "real" or not but either way AKC deems them as one and the same. In my own breed the variation is between 2lbs and 20lbs. Breed doesn't really matter in this case anyways, dog chases deer, owner is still an idiot. Doesn't matter if he's a deerhound, golden retriever, ridgeback, or poodle.

 Quote: Melissa Thom

Maybe he was rolling after the deer?

That's too funny! LOL

And the comment on that site about the bears is really important. If your dog starts growling or barking at a bear you might get more than your honey taken.

When we were camping in the Lewis and Clark NF in MT, we made sure that Shaed was chained up in our campsites. Granted when we were at Harley Park in L&C we let her run around a bit (maybe a half hour at most, but she had an e-collar on the whole time and she has an excellent recall. Same thing once we made it to our rental cabin, we had cows fenced in about 20yds away from the cabin itself, no way was I going to let her run around and harass the local or domestic wildlife. Sure didn't want to have her finding a porcupine, skunk or worse, a bear.
The only animal we did see come into out camp was a deer during a rainstorm-we were already in our vehicle with her, but we shut the door and she was trying to be tough and bark at the "intruder", even after it had walked though. lol.

Going for a trial hike sounded like a good idea a couple of different days, but since we had Shaed with and the people who had wrote in the journal at the cabin that they had run into black bears on some of the trails, we nixed the idea pretty quick, and we couldn't leave Shaed alone in the cabin, that was the only stipulation during our stay there-NF rule.