From what I’ve seen, the most successful method the antis are using to close the pens is going before the state wildlife commissions. Legislative action takes too long and requires too much political capital and very few representatives are going to spend their time on such a small issue unless they are deep in the pocket of HSUS. It is still important to have a lobbyist in each state to keep these bills that come up every year from gaining any traction but I think in the short term we need to get ahead of their plans to get the pens shut down by executive order.
To prevent what happened in Florida from happening in every state we need to look closely at how these boards operate. Hound owners have gone thru similar situations in the last 15 years in Alabama and I have some theories I’ll share. These boards are convened by the governor in each state to be the public face of the wildlife departments and at least make it seem like the state is considering public input on management decisions. As a matter of politics the governors and their appointees are going to do whatever seems like the majority of their constituents would agree with. So when a group of antis come in to these commission meetings and present their version of what a fox pen is and they have pictures of a coyote getting killed the commissioners are going to tend to side with them because the commissioners have no idea what a fox pen is and neither do their constituents. All they know is they are going to look like a bunch of idiots on the six o’clock news if they support this thing they have never heard of where packs of hounds rip coyotes apart for the pleasure of the hound owners. Of course the foxhound owners at the meeting are going to talk about how we don’t kill the game and how much good we do but that doesn’t really cut it when the other side has a video of a coyote being torn apart. These meetings are not court rooms. No rules of evidence apply. It doesn’t matter if their pictures are from a pen or whether they are from the same state as the meeting is being held in. There is no cross examination to question the statements and materials that have been submitted.
Just think for a minute about how difficult it is to explain a fox pen to someone who has never seen one. Anyone you talk to is going to assume if you are a “hunter” then your intention is to kill something. If you are using hounds to aid in the hunt then you must want the hounds to catch the game. If you put the game you are hunting in a pen then you are trapping it so you can catch it easier. I don’t blame the folks that don’t understand what we do. It is tough to wrap your head around. It would be nice if we didn’t have to explain it but it has come to the point where we need to be able to if we are going to keep the sport going.
So my suggestions to combat what is going on at these commission meetings is to try to help these commissioners (and to some extent the public) understand what really happens at a fox pen. It would be ideal if one or two of the commissioners from each state would go visit a pen in their state and see what an average day of running looks like. I doubt they would take the time out to do it in most cases so it would be helpful to have an information packet to present that shows what goes on. Some videos and pictures of our own would be nice. I also think it would help to have a website with information about how the pens came about, why they are a good thing, and show what a day at a fox pen looks like. We have websites for ourselves but we don’t have anything to show a non-foxhunter what we do. Showing that we help local economies and raise money for charity is nice but that isn’t going to make anyone condone a sport that they are being told is worse than dog fighting. We have to have some evidence of our own that shows fox pens are not cruel torture chambers. We need to be able to prove the wholesome nature of the sport. It is hard to do in 5 minutes at these meetings when nobody in the room has a clue what a fox pen is when the meeting starts but that is the burden we are left with.
Something else I have seen is that most still hunters appreciate the fact that we are running in the pens to keep our hounds off their hunting land. Most of the board members of the state commissions are going to be still hunters and they like the idea of fewer hounds in the wild that might run a deer off their food plot.

Amen,Heath.good post.As i said earler.STAND UP ,STAND UP AN EDUCATE.

That shows the importance of getting people who hunt on the state commissions. If all 7 hunt something, they are less likely to be persuaded by antis. If all 7 are lawyers, who knows what they can be talked into doing.

Heath you can start with your idea by fighting fire with fire. How did endthehunt get their start, manage to get a billboard in florida put up and information easily accesible to commisioners from florida? By using the web. I think a start to this issue for educating the public and educating some commisioners is for someone computer savey to build a website based soley on preserving fox pens in either the country or merely start with florida, by educating people on the inner workings of a fox pen. Post pics of puppies, show running at fox pens, show pics of people that are helped by benefit hunts, Lay out the master rules on there, explain how it is we score hounds, protecting game, Lay out the endthehunt folk's information and explain how it is completly wrong explain where her pictures came from heck call it the fact or fiction section etc etc I could go on with the possibilities this site would offer. Post legislative issues on the board for every state, and Forward it to every commisioner in every state. Use pictures, videos, whatever is necessary to prove a point of what actually occurs in a fox pen, not what endthehunt would have you to believe. I mean I have talked with other people on the internet in other states who thought we actually tie bears up inside fox pens to fight them?? This lady actualy asked me that and she was one of the strongest advocates againts foxpens in a different state. People that havent ever been inside of a pen dont have a clue! Like it or not though the web in my opinion has caused about 79% of our problems today without it these people would not exist. But you either remove all foxhunting information from the web, or you have to fight it on the web and I believe we are to late to remove it from the web. So its time to fight.

you could consider using this website to keep a running toll of the amount of money raised at each hunt, or from each hunting club. Like the dollar a dog for field trialers. Make stickers with some sort of slogan for purchase, kind of like having accrediation(probably spelled wrong)in the fox hunting world, contact lawyers and lobbyist through this site under one group name. Each running hounds group in each state could be accredited though this site. Make campaign donations every election year in each state. Have people pledge money through this site. Team up with the NRA. I mean virginia is about as close as they come to what Im talking about and they are stronger than ever. Maybe im just babbling who knows, just a few ideas anyways.