ORIGINAL: SavageOne
ORIGINAL: vabyrd
Its illegal to feed deer in VA from September to January for ANY reason. Our dept of game discourages ANY feeding because of the impact that it has on their ecology. Bait is feed placed for the purpose of attracting game. Food plots are NOT baiting. If hunting near a food source is baiting, then the only legal place you could shoot a deer is a parking lot or the desert. I guess acorns and grass are bait too? Hey, do you dove hunt out of a bird feeder?? And just because something is legal, doesn't mean its ethical. Learn the difference. If you believe ethics are defined by the law, you in for a big surprise.
vabyrd,
I doubt anyone plants a food plot because they're interested in gardening. They plant it to attract deer, which means according to your definition it's bait.
I give you that not everything legal is ethical only because laws are a set of rules while ethics vary from person to person. If the law says a practice falls with in the rules then once again I say don't let YOUR ethics impact a lawful practice. A law may not make something ethical in your view but your ethics don't make it illegal ever.
As far as using a spot light it's not even in the same catagory. We're talking about attractants here, but feel free to grasp at those straws.
Do people who use scents and lures or scent blocker also "suck" in your opinion? Their trying to draw in deer just the same.
Bait is feed, a bag of corn. A food plot is a field of clover,chickory, turnips, etc... Dumping a 50# bag of corn in front of a tree stand is the same thing? Take it a little further. Two punks find a the edge of someones field, sneak out in the middle of the night dumping corn, couple of days later, sneak in for a quick shot. Guys dumping corn along logging roads in national forest. Have you ever managed enough land where you were able to grow a plot? Have a clue what it costs? Fact is most who do so, are engaged in practices such as hay production or cattle. The main reason is that most Departments of Game will agree that having deer in such tight quarters (such as a 2 foot circle of food) is not healthy. You can argue with them all day long, or me for that matter, if you or anyone else wants to dump a bag of corn and hunt over it, have a ball. Spray yourself all day with whatever you want, doesnt bother me. I believe the original post was the definition of "Bait". You can master it if you like.