Ruddyduck

Just be careful what you wish for when it comes to banning "canned" hunts. The type of canned hunts that have caused the outrage and the rush to pass legislation, I personally distain and would never hunt like that.
But when you say a "canned or high fence" operation a law must be crafted very precisely and narrowly. I can't say about the places run in Indiana but other states places can be 1000's of acres with some ranches running 10,000 or more. The hunts taking place on alomost all of those are fair chase . Let's not forget commercial bird hunting preseves and in a similar vien a club with a semi wild preserveeither. What are those places but a "canned" hunt. A law passed in haste can paint all with one broad stroke.
While the vast majority hunters disapprove of this style of shooting an animal be vigilant ,remember that most of the people in that body that make you laws are for the most part non hunters and in the more populated states you'd probably find quite a few anti's in thier midst. Most bills are past with little knowledge of what the actual wording is except for a few who crafted it.

Big Country

I will be right with you in criticizing any extreme activity, high fence related or not.

Indianahick

Rodney Bruce's area, (as listed in a news paper) is 117 acres. No mention was made of how many deer are ran on this property, how they are fed, etc. He will not say how many hunters he has at one time nor how he feeds/houses them, nor how large an area each hunter may be able to use. Maybe Motel 6 and you eat at McDonalds. But my belief is that in order to be able to run a profitable killing field there needs to be many large bucks and more than that amount of does you are going to have to place feeders of some nature around the property. With only 117 acres hunting close to a feeder has to be more than just a possability.Areas like this are just to small to be paid for hunting areas. The larger 1,000 or 10,000 or larger areas should not be used for comparison perposes. Unless the land is used for personal hunting then these small areas are to small for paid hunts and should be closed. It is areas like this that give hunting a bad name. This is not guided hunting.

Champlain Islander

I hope it is banned everywhere.

liquidorange

next they will try to ban trout fishing. the lakes in my state are stocked with trout and other species in small ponds and streams . they have no wear to go and have to be caught before the summer heat because they aint gonna survive. if your hunting deer on a ranch the size of rode island i doubt if your gonna be hunting a tamed critter. i think we need to be careful on this issue. maybe let the biologists have a look at things . ranchs that are fenced dont mean tamed animals all the time. if you choose to shoot your own food who cares. cows slaughtered on a assembly line or a cock bird released the night before. if its a trophy to you and you can live with it so be it. get over it i say.

bigbuckOO

This is a state by state issue. Hunters in this state as i mentioned before are strongly against canned hunting. This isnt Texas and its very rare to find a thousand or more acres wrapped up by one person. As Indianahick mentioned, one preserve in this state is a whopping 117 acres. The Bellar preserve was roughly 1100 acres i believe, but lets be real here, he fenced off little 5-10 acre pens all over his property for the "hunters" to kill drugged deer. Hunters with no licenses i might add. How tough is it to kill a deer inside a 7 acre pen? Canned hunting in this state is about as far from fair chase as you get. Make no mistake here, the Indiana DNR and lawmakers are acting becuase of the hunting community, it is the hunters of this state who want to see it shut down. It was never actually legal to begin with so im not sure what the fuss is about. These deer pimps should be thankful the state didnt act earlier.

Bill Yox

The REAL shame is that you guys all hate this type of hunting, yet, to a man, you cannot describe the specific activity to me. Its easy to sit on your butts and hate, just because someone else told you it was so. Some of you are the same kind of guys who once hated compound bows, deer drives, and land leasing.

Take a walk through a LEGIT high fence enclosure with an open mind first. I didnt say to hunt it, as it might not be for you, of course. But, before condemning one, at least have an idea what you are hating. The situation in Indiana is way bigger and deeper than most of you know or understand. The Bellar case was a very odd situation.

As soon as you use terms like feeders, and drugged animals, for example, I know for sure you dont know about these operations. Yes, you only see some guy with no ethics hunting "those easy, tame pets" because some of you need to justify it that way. I see very respected individuals, who have learned what its really about, and they support this industry. I know enough slob hunters in "fairchase" situations that are scum enough to shut down YOUR hunting. Shooting before legal time, bombing turkeys out of roost trees, packing those extra ducks into your hip boots, creative tagging of deer, metal jacket parts in archery kills, running over red fox with sleds, gut shooting bucks to find the next(opening) day, we see it all. Are you for that, too? No? Well, why not, that gives hunting a bad name. Funny how the logic doesnt carry over like that, huh? Look, if you dont care for true canned hunts, animals in cages being slaughtered, join the club, few of us do. But to condemn legit programs is very foolish. Most of the photos, videos, magazine covers, calenders, grunt calls, and info you all have about whitetails comes from behind the fence, whether you wanna believe it or not. I know first hand.

So, like a previous post said well, watch what you wish for. Renting a dog and popping ten pheasants at a farm, or catching big fish in a pond or a stocked stream, or taking any reintroduced species is subject to your death wish. Just like you argue every day with anti hunters, nobody is trying to MAKE you BE a supporter of hunting, or in this casehigh fencehunting, but just choose NOT to, rather than shut it down because you dont happen to like it.

bigbuckOO

What specific activity do you need described to you? I didnt realize canned killing (not hunting) was so much of a science? Are you trying to imply here that Russ Bellar did not drug deer and did not use the aid of feeders? Are you saying preserve owners in general do not use feeders? Remember, using feeders or bait piles is a violation of Indiana law. You claim we dont know what we are talking about when we bring these 2 topics up. Are you suggesting the state and Bellars customers lied in its investigation? The sad part about this is that Russ Bellars preserve was looked upon as the "model preserve" by all the other preserve owners in the state. What kind of a message does that send? Still to this day there are deer farmers trying to tell people that Russ did nothing wrong. Let me guess, you are a deer farmer yourself????????

Champlain Islander

I don't have any reason to dislike deer farming if it is done properly and for the right reasons. By deer, I am talking about fallow deer or other non native species that will be used as livestockfor consumption or breeding. I view native deer species as wild creatures that shouldn't be confined and domesticated. Slaughter of fallow deer should be done the same way as livestock. Mixing hunting into the equation is what bothers me. If a beef farmer wants to slaughter a steer then he does it but rarely will he advertise to hunters that they can come to his farm for a fee and shoot his cow. Because the livestock in question is a deer then it has appeal to people looking for a trophy or want to experience killing a deer without actually hunting. I feel this action is detrimental to the whole hunting and fair chase concept and that is why I don't like canned hunting. Most states promote their own hunting and receive money from the sportsmen who buy licenses and vacation there. Most states wanttheir hunting to be looked upon as excellent and having high standards. Canned hunting usually doesn't sit right with true sportsmen. Fair chase means the animal has a chance to live another day. Canned hunting is guaranteed killing for money and I don't think that perception is good for our sport.

Big Country

Mr. Yox, you are not going to talk sense to people who have a narrow minded....it is all about me....mindset.

You are correct, the vast majority of these folks screaming to have high fenced preserves made illegal, have little or no first hand knowledge of what these places are like. I have heard for the second time now that Russ Bellars place was a model of how these places should be........I would like to know just who had that opinion?

It still comes down to private property rights. Hey, you got a field you want to make into a soccer field, that is your right. Personally, I think soccr is a sissy game, that teaches our children the wrong thing about life. I think that if God did NOT want us to use our arms, he would have left them off..........but I sure will not attempt to deny you the right of having a soccer field on YOUR land.

As far as th negative outlook on our hunting heritage goes....these places would not even be a blip on the radar screen if were not for the ethics police type hunters that cry about them.

Just because hunting/killing inside of a fence is not your cup of tea, that does not give you the right to force your views on others.

There are no legitimate arguements for stopping a private landowner from erecting a fence and stocking that fenced in area with privately owned animals, there are only selfish, uneducated reasons.

You don`t have to call these places "hunting", in fact, you don`t have to call them anything. If you do not like it, do NOT participate in it. It is that simple.

And before some of you form your reply....I have NEVER hunted inside a high fence.

I have no plans of EVER hunting in a high fence.

I do not own, or work for, in any way, a high fence hunting preserve.

I simply do not go around thinking that killing privately owned animals by the owner of said animals, whether they are cows, hogs, sheep, deer, elk, etc. is any of my business.