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upstate ny
Found this on our local news internet site.
They are still watching
'Captive hunts' stir controversy, legislation
By Judy Keen, USA TODAYUpdated 21h 27m ago Comments 325 Reprints & PermissionsOn his farm near Pierceton, Ind., Ken McIntosh raises corn, soybeans, alfalfa, cattle — and deer.
"I try to raise my animals and I sell them to the marketplace," says McIntosh, 53, a retired professional fisherman.
The way some of those transactions are conducted is sparking national debate among hunters, conservationists, politicians and animal rights groups. McIntosh operates a 189-acre hunting preserve, enclosed by 8-foot fences, where clients pay to shoot, mostly with a bow, deer and sometimes elk and buffalo.
McIntosh, who also has 8,000 acres for free-range hunting, doesn't guarantee that his customers will kill an animal. He also tests his deer's health and won't allow bottle-fed animals to be hunted. His business, Midwest Woodlots, benefits the state and helps the local economy, he says.
Opponents of the practice, including the Humane Society of the United States, call it captive or canned hunting. Twenty-six states have full or partial bans on captive hunting of mammals. The Humane Society says the USA has about 1,000 captive-hunting facilities, half in Texas.
"Captive hunting for both native wildlife and exotic wildlife should be illegal," says the Humane Society's Casey Pheiffer. A recent undercover investigation found captive-hunting facilities that sedated animals and lured them to waiting shooters, she says.
"These hunting preserves are on marginal land" and allow people "to make a living" Niceley says. "The overfed bureaucrats won't let them."
McIntosh says bad facilities unfairly taint the industry. "If something is being done that shouldn't be done, let's resolve it," he says, "but let's not put people out of business."
Efforts to limit the practice
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., this year introduced a bill that would bar the interstate transport of exotic animals for the purpose of killing them for entertainment or trophies. The bill, which hasn't been scheduled for a hearing, also would ban the interstate movement of equipment for computer-assisted remote hunting, in which online users aim and fire a mechanized weapon.
Killing animals in a preserve or via the Internet "is just the last thing that a true hunter would do," Cohen says.
Pheiffer says there's been "a major push" to expand the industry this year, though most bills were not enacted.
Opponents cite fairness issue
Opponents say hunting preserves violate the "fair chase" concept. "Did the animal have a fair chance to escape?" asks Keith Balfourd of the Boone and Crocket Club, a conservation group founded by Theodore Roosevelt.
"They're not hunts, they're shoots," he says, "and the club denounces that activity."
Ryan Giannini, owner of Highland Hideaway Hunting in Riverside, Iowa, stocks his 1,500-acre preserve with pheasant and chukar, another game bird.
He releases birds into areas that are to be hunted and makes sure his land is hospitable, he says, but "once they're released, after a couple days they might be somewhere else." His preserve, says Giannini, 29, is an ideal place for youngsters to learn to hunt and for adults to work with hunting dogs.
Critics, he says, "think it's like shooting fish in a barrel," so he often invites them to hunt in his preserve. "We do get the handful that are totally against it for their own reasons and beliefs," he says. "Sometimes you just can't change their mind."
Last year in Maine, state Rep. Alan Casavant, a Democrat, introduced a bill to ban all captive hunting.
Casavant's legislation was defeated and he decided not to try again this year. "Especially in northern areas of the state, there's not much up there in terms of jobs," he says. "If people have to subsist by doing that, I'm not going to mess with it."
In the legislatures
Sample of legislative action on hunting preserves:
Georgia: A measure that would have legalized captive hunting of exotic species, including endangered species, died.
Indiana: Legislation that would have legalized captive hunting died. A court challenge to a 2005 ruling banning the facilities is pending.
Iowa: A bill to legalize the captive hunting of wild boars died.
Michigan: A ban on captive hunting of exotic swine takes effect in October unless the legislature enacts rules enabling officials to track the animals' health.
Mississippi: A bill allowing the regulation of private deer breeding farms died.
New York: The legislature is considering a bill that would regulate and protect captive hunts.
Tennessee: Legislation that would have overturned a policy phasing out most captive hunts did not come to a vote.
Republican state Rep. Frank Niceley failed to win passage of a bill that would have legalized white-tail deer farming.
West Virginia: A bill that would have shifted control of deer farms to the Agriculture Department died.
They are still watching 'Captive hunts' stir controversy, legislation
By Judy Keen, USA TODAYUpdated 21h 27m ago Comments 325 Reprints & PermissionsOn his farm near Pierceton, Ind., Ken McIntosh raises corn, soybeans, alfalfa, cattle — and deer.
"I try to raise my animals and I sell them to the marketplace," says McIntosh, 53, a retired professional fisherman.
The way some of those transactions are conducted is sparking national debate among hunters, conservationists, politicians and animal rights groups. McIntosh operates a 189-acre hunting preserve, enclosed by 8-foot fences, where clients pay to shoot, mostly with a bow, deer and sometimes elk and buffalo.
McIntosh, who also has 8,000 acres for free-range hunting, doesn't guarantee that his customers will kill an animal. He also tests his deer's health and won't allow bottle-fed animals to be hunted. His business, Midwest Woodlots, benefits the state and helps the local economy, he says.
Opponents of the practice, including the Humane Society of the United States, call it captive or canned hunting. Twenty-six states have full or partial bans on captive hunting of mammals. The Humane Society says the USA has about 1,000 captive-hunting facilities, half in Texas.
"Captive hunting for both native wildlife and exotic wildlife should be illegal," says the Humane Society's Casey Pheiffer. A recent undercover investigation found captive-hunting facilities that sedated animals and lured them to waiting shooters, she says.
"These hunting preserves are on marginal land" and allow people "to make a living" Niceley says. "The overfed bureaucrats won't let them."
McIntosh says bad facilities unfairly taint the industry. "If something is being done that shouldn't be done, let's resolve it," he says, "but let's not put people out of business."
Efforts to limit the practice
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., this year introduced a bill that would bar the interstate transport of exotic animals for the purpose of killing them for entertainment or trophies. The bill, which hasn't been scheduled for a hearing, also would ban the interstate movement of equipment for computer-assisted remote hunting, in which online users aim and fire a mechanized weapon.
Killing animals in a preserve or via the Internet "is just the last thing that a true hunter would do," Cohen says.
Pheiffer says there's been "a major push" to expand the industry this year, though most bills were not enacted.
Opponents cite fairness issue
Opponents say hunting preserves violate the "fair chase" concept. "Did the animal have a fair chance to escape?" asks Keith Balfourd of the Boone and Crocket Club, a conservation group founded by Theodore Roosevelt.
"They're not hunts, they're shoots," he says, "and the club denounces that activity."
Ryan Giannini, owner of Highland Hideaway Hunting in Riverside, Iowa, stocks his 1,500-acre preserve with pheasant and chukar, another game bird.
He releases birds into areas that are to be hunted and makes sure his land is hospitable, he says, but "once they're released, after a couple days they might be somewhere else." His preserve, says Giannini, 29, is an ideal place for youngsters to learn to hunt and for adults to work with hunting dogs.
Critics, he says, "think it's like shooting fish in a barrel," so he often invites them to hunt in his preserve. "We do get the handful that are totally against it for their own reasons and beliefs," he says. "Sometimes you just can't change their mind."
Last year in Maine, state Rep. Alan Casavant, a Democrat, introduced a bill to ban all captive hunting.
Casavant's legislation was defeated and he decided not to try again this year. "Especially in northern areas of the state, there's not much up there in terms of jobs," he says. "If people have to subsist by doing that, I'm not going to mess with it."
In the legislatures
Sample of legislative action on hunting preserves:
Georgia: A measure that would have legalized captive hunting of exotic species, including endangered species, died.
Indiana: Legislation that would have legalized captive hunting died. A court challenge to a 2005 ruling banning the facilities is pending.
Iowa: A bill to legalize the captive hunting of wild boars died.
Michigan: A ban on captive hunting of exotic swine takes effect in October unless the legislature enacts rules enabling officials to track the animals' health.
Mississippi: A bill allowing the regulation of private deer breeding farms died.
New York: The legislature is considering a bill that would regulate and protect captive hunts.
Tennessee: Legislation that would have overturned a policy phasing out most captive hunts did not come to a vote.
Republican state Rep. Frank Niceley failed to win passage of a bill that would have legalized white-tail deer farming.
West Virginia: A bill that would have shifted control of deer farms to the Agriculture Department died.
