bigbuck00, I agree 100%, Bellar obviously did things that he KNEW were direct violations of state law. For any of the other high fence owners to condone that is not a good move. I have stated before that I have never hunted inside a high fence, and that is true. I also said that I have no financial ties to a hugh fence hunting preserve, that is true as well.
I do have a fair amount of experience with high fence operations though. There is no reason to have to drug an animal for a client to shoot it. If I were to guess, and this is only a guess......a common practice among shooting preserves like this is to sell a hunt for a size class buck they do not even have. After they make the arrangements for the hunt, they shop around and purchase the right sized animal. Of course whitetails are so high strung that they need to be completely knocked out to be transported. I am guessing that they took delivery on an animal the same day as the hunt was to occur, and the deer was still under the influence of the tranquilizer.
Even though I personally do not have the desire to hunt inside a high fence, I can honestly tell you that it does not take a very big area for whitetails to hide from you for days on end. If you wanted to bowhunt insid a high fence, you could hunt a 100 acre pen where the deer were never bottle fed as fawns for days without killing a deer.
Regardless of my opinion on whether Indiana residents should be allowed to operate a hunting preserve 7 days a week, 365 days a year, without a hunting license.......the state law makes this illegal. The law might be wrong IMO, but it is the law, and it should be adhered to.
Ruddyduck, I know that when soccer is played at a higher level, it is an extremely tough sport. My problem with soccer stems fom the fact that I am old enough to have seen the beginnings of soccers popularity in this country. Those soccer leagues popped up everywhere, and ruined every baseball outfield we had in our area. Plus, at the younger ages it was a feel good sport. Winning was not important, and everybody got to play an equal amount of time regardless of their skill level. I have always had a problem with that mindset. It might be OK for 6-10 year olds, but any older than that and you are teaching kids a bad life lesson. In real life, there are winners and losers. If you are not doing very good, you need to know it, and practice to be better. In real life, your report card is called a paycheck. Even though I have to grudgingly admit that soccer can be a super tough game, I still don`t see why I cannot pick that dang ball up and throw it!!
One last thing for Indianahick.......hey man, I am sorry if my post came accross like I was yelling, or mad about this subject. I do disagree with the legality of the subject, but I do believe operations like this should be held to strict standards. We may disagree on this subject, but we are both passionate about the outdoors and hunting. We are on the same side here, we just don`t agree on this particular deal.
