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Show good will while hunting

October 24, 2007

As hunting season gathers speed, so does the interest from property owners in the subject of trespass.

One area farmer has had to kick 10 separate groups of hunters from his property so far this year, one of whom had cut a fence and driven onto his property.

County Attorney Daryl Day said that he receives "more questions about this than you would ever expect."

The truth of the matter is that private property is private property. Without express permission, hunters, or anyone else for that matter, cannot enter private property for their own use.

Property owners are not required to post property or publish public warnings to

would-be trespassers. Similarly, property owners don't need to list every proscribed

activity. One local farmer who'd previously published that his property was private and listed hunting, fishing, and trapping as things people weren't allowed to do, wanted to add "four wheeling" to the list because with low creek levels he'd recently had an invasion of four-wheel riders who could enter his property without crossing a fence.

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The overwhelming majority of hunters are conscientious about gaining permission, closing gates, and cleaning up after themselves when they hunt on private property. The handful of those who don't give a black eye to the rest can eventually turn previously accommodating property owners against hunters.

Common sense does prevail, as with most Kentucky laws; crossing a fence to get a dog that's treed a coon 50 feet onto someone's property won't get you arrested. Running through someone's woods armed to teeth in the middle of the night with a

pack of dogs will. Similarly, property owners are protected from liability in most

cases where a trespasser might injure themselves participating in what is inherently

a dangerous activity.

The best advice to property owners is to avoid confrontation, and if necessary

call the sheriff or the game warden. A chance meeting in the dark between two armed

parties could only end badly.

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