Indiana is Introducing a Bill to Allow High Fence Preserves again

Thanks Ed.

The battle has begun....It PASSED the enviromental committe

That is good news!

Cool........one hurdle at a time.....great news!!

Coby do you know whats next and when I didnt catch that at the end.

thanks Ed

The next step is the house and we are hoping that is real soon, then from there I think is the legislative and then the senate. Getting through the enviromental committe is a big step because of the DNR.

I am from Oklahoma and we were not readily accepted by DNR (we call it Dept of Wildlife)either but we got involved with them by participating in thier annual outdoor wildlife expo and made donations to thier department.It was basicily the same reasons that you guys had.Several years after participating in thier events and educating them about who we were and what we stood for,I have had several of them come and talk to me and explain how in the begining that were against us they had changed their minds and really liked us.I realize that Oklahoma is Oklahoma and Indiana is Indiana but it worked for us.They love us.Just to give an example of the relationship we have I was late getting to the expo and they had already called Tim to make sure we were coming.60,000 people attended the event in a 3 day period and we are in the education pavilion right between Spoonbills and the Wild Turkey Federation which only shows they understand we are good people and mean no ill will to anyone including themselves.This is not a plug for the great state of Oklahoma,but just an example of what worked for us

Its highly possible the house will hear this bill tomorrow. Please work on the legislators today!!!!! emails and calls

That's great news!!!!

I agree that would be sweet! Keep us posted

We had a great turn out for the Natural Resource Committee Tuesday. There was over 100 in support and only 5 in opposition. The Bill will now go to Second and third reading this coming week in the House. After passage in the House it will go through the same process in the Senate.

I have personally fought this since 1999 in Indiana. In 1999 I obtained a letter from the DNR granting me permission to build and operate a hunting preserve for deer. Since then our industry has spent millions relying on the permission given by the State. In 2005 a new Director for the DNR who personally opposed high fenced hunting attempted to shut us down solely on his personal belief. Immediately following his attempt to shut us down I filed suit against the State and was granted a temporary injunction until it was resolved either in court or in legislation.

After years of fighting on many fronts we finally got Farm Bureau, NFIB, sportsmen, deer farmers and numerous legislators to join our cause and help get a legislative solution. I am representing the Preserves and Gary Jacobson (IDEFA) is representing the Deer Farmers, together with all the individual support of the preserves and deer farmers we are making great process.

Our opposition which consist of the Humane Society and a couple extremist hunting groups are joining together in attempts to scare the public and legislators into thinking the sky is falling over CWD. We had expert testimony disputing their accusations at the committee hearing. They offered nothing but unsubstantiated hype.

We would appreciate any assistance by emailing or calling the legislators to show support over HB1265. Feel free to email me with any questions or for legislators addresses. The Indiana General Assembly Homepage list all representatives and their email.

We have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars in Indiana on this issue. Finally, I think everyone is ready to embrace it and allow the Industry to bring millions into the State economy and expand hunting opportunities in the State.



Thanks for your support.



Rodney

Great to hear Rodney.......can't wait to hear the news that it all passed!!

i was really disappointed that the indiana deer hunters association stood up and spoke against us.

Ben, I have had members of the Indiana deer hunters assoc. and Indiana Bow Hunters assoc. hunting on my preserve. They had no idea the organization they belonged to was supposed to be against us. Those organizations have a couple people who have nothing better to do than try and speak for everyone. They live in a small world and have no clue what sportsmen really want or anything about carrying on the Hunting Heritage. The natural Resource Committee hearing had over 100 in support and only 5 in opposition, it has been that way in every meeting held across Indiana.

Sounds like this bill is pretty much dead now.

Sounds just like the legislation problem we had when we tried to get the elk and deer farmers under the Department of livestock and not under Fish and Game. We got our bill all through the House and Senate but then the Govenor just let it on his desk and wouldn't sign it, dead in the water. Looks like the Fish and game of Indiana knew the Senate would handle it the way they did. Our goverment is just so screwed up. By the people for the people my A**

I think right now its gonna be a waiting game, till the election is over to get Daniels out of office. After the first of the next year we should have a better chance, because the two top guys for govoner are for us. So hopefully this time next year we will be back on track. Gary is trying to setup a 1 on 1 meeting with Senator Long to find out his personal reasoning. Its amazing that one person can get it shut down, and its a personal problem with him.

One person should never ever have this much power.........what a joke!! I hope it costs him his job!!

IDEFA and the Indiana Beaglers Alliance is still working HARD to try to resurrect this bill from Sen. Longs desk. Most have day jobs so time can unfortunately be a problem. As with a lot of people it appears that Sen Long has no idea what high-fence hunting and deer farming is about, just a preconcieved HSUS notion. We are working to educate him. If we do not make any progress this year it appears that the candidates for Gov this fall are more receptive to us than Mitch Daniels.



Emails to Sen Long would be good to educate him and let him know that the preserves are an end market for our product and that deer farming is not unlike farming cattle/hogs/chicken etc.

Contact Chad Tanner or Jeff Brooks in Georgia, they can walk you thru the whole thing they are in the same process right know and have been very succesful at what they have done.

Call 256-702-0246 and I will give you there contact info. Thanks, Justin Davidson