Hunting Dog Protection Project aims to protect dogs like Tanner. The legal system does not achieve justice for abandoned hunting dogs.
Even in states without the hunting dog exemption from animal cruelty statutes, enforcement of animal cruelty statutes against those who abandon dogs is minimal. This is because of law enforcement’s lack of resources and the inability to prove who was responsible for abandoning a dog.
Section 47-1-70 of South Carolina code exempts hunting dogs from the statute making animal abandonment a misdemeanor. This is unacceptable, and it’s Hunting Dog Protection Project’s goal to raise awareness for this gap in the law.
Section 47-1-70 of South Carolina code defines what it means to abandon an animal and makes it a misdemeanor. According to the section, “abandonment” means to desert an animal without securing another owner or without providing the “necessities of life,” which includes water, food, and shelter. The code then goes on to say, “a hunting dog that is positively identifiable in accordance with Section 47-3-510 or Section 47-3-530 is exempt from this section.” To be positively identifiable, a dog must have their registration number clearly visible, a collar bearing sufficient information to contact their owner, or other form of positive identification. So, for hunters to be able to dump their dogs legally, the hunters just need to remove any form of identification off the dog. This statute plainly makes it legal for hunters to leave their dog without food, water, or shelter. For all other dogs, however, it’s a misdemeanor to abandon them.
In the context of Tanner, he was exempt from animal abandonment statutes when he was a hunting dog. The moment he was picked up by the shelter and microchipped, Tanner was no longer “positively identifiable as a hunting dog” and gained legal protections. Even though Tanner was the same dog as when he was a hunting dog, he gained legal protections, simply because the type of person who owned him changed. This is unfair, as all dogs deserve basic protections from abandonment, regardless of who their owners are.
Hunting Dog Protection Project was established in 2026 with the goal of raising awareness on the hunting dog abandonment issue.
In efforts to educate the public about the abandonment of hunting dogs, Hunting Dogs in South Carolina: Man’s Best Friend Needs Man’s Best Protection was published on Amazon in April 2026.