Greetings my fellow bowhunters and UBNJ Members, my name is Rich Stollery and I volunteered to be the liaison between UBNJ and the conservation program known as Division of Fish and Game Permit 131.

Permit # 131 allows for qualified dogs and their handlers to track  deer that have been deemed "lost" or unrecoverable. We have 13 dogs and handlers this year, which is exciting. There will be a handler call/contact list up on the UBNJ web site for the entire season.

The conditions and parameters will be up on the site as well, such as: all dogs must be leashed at all times while tracking, landowner permission is a must before tracking can commence, and so on. Read up on the details on UBNJ web site, print out the handler list and keep it in your truck/hunting vehicle.

Should you shoot a deer and can't find it give one of us a call. Try to call the handler that lives closet to the lost deer first, this should help reduce the time your deer is laying in the woods. You will be asked a series of questions by the handler and if he/she feels there is a chance to recover your deer you can make arrangements to meet the handler, the dog, and blood track your lost deer. The handler may turn down your request if he/she feels the deer is not recoverable from the details of your phone conversation.

This is a volunteer service, although we do accept donations to help defray the costs of fuel, auto etc. Current NJ law does not allow for the use of dogs during the hunting of deer in any form. The 10 people listed on Permit 131 are the ONLY people allowed to use dogs to find wounded deer in the state of NJ.

The dedicated volunteers and their dogs are not your personal deer recovery service so please have consideration for our time and efforts and only call us after you have tried to recover the animal yourself. The impetus behind this Permit is to gather data on deer recovery with leashed tracking dogs. The end use of this data will be used to craft legislation that will amend current state law and allow a certified leashed tracking dog to recover deer for NJ hunters.  Currently there are 30 other states that allow some type of big game recovery with tracking dogs. New York State has been doing this for over 30 years with impressive results.

My email address is on the list, should you have any questions drop me a line. I will update the web site during the season with any changes.

Thank you in advance for your cooperation.

Shoot straight!

Rich Stollery