INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — A bill that would set regulations for hunting preserves in Indiana was sent to the state Senate last week after clearing the House of Representatives by a 55-39 vote.
Under House Bill 1453, hunting preserves in Blackford, Harrison, Kosciusko and Marshall counties – already in operation at the end of last year – would be allowed to remain open. The legislation would also permit now-closed facilities that had been operational before Dec. 31, 2014, to reopen, provided they are still in the hands of the original owner and meet other requirements such as acreage size and fence height.
The legislation would not allow for the creation of new facilities, according to state Rep. Sean Eberhart (R-District 57), the bill’s author. Preserves would be required to have a minimum hunting area of 100 acres and an 8-foot-tall fence. Hunters would use the same firearms as they would in the wild and follow the same rules.
The bill also requires an annual license fee of $2,000. The Indiana Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and Indiana State Board of Animal Health (BOAH) will evenly split the fee, which will be used by both agencies to offset the costs of regulating the preserves, Eberhart said.
Hunting in a preserve would be permitted a half-hour before sunrise until a half-hour after sunset from Aug. 15-April 15.
"This industry expects to be regulated; they want regulations," Eberhart said Feb. 17 during a discussion about the legislation on the House floor. "I think this bill presents some decent regulations for something that currently has none.
"I truly believe that these businesses – and that’s what they are, these businesses – along with the deer farms, do deserve an opportunity to exist and to operate under common-sense regulations."
Deer needed to stock the hunting preserves would be considered livestock and come from the state’s more than 400 deer farms, Eberhart has said.
Many deer hunters are opposed to the preserves, said Rep. Clyde Kersey (D-District 43). They believe "it violates the principle of fair chase where you go out into the wild and deer have a chance to get away," he stated. "This is a bad bill and we’re setting a bad example."
Deer hunters are concerned Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD) will be brought into the state and that it will spread among the wild deer herd, Kersey said. There’s also the cost of cleanup if the disease were to be found in the state, he added.
CWD is a brain-deteriorating disease that affects cervidae, including deer and elk, according to BOAH. The presence of the disease in other states has raised concern in Indiana’s animal health community, though it is not known to be present in the state’s wild or farm-raised deer or elk, the agency said.
There are different definitions of what’s considered "fair chase," noted Rep. Alan Morrison (R-District 42), who voted for the measure.
"When those deer are out there, whether it’s 100 acres or 400 or 1,000, their natural instinct is to run," he said. "They don’t come up and eat out of your hand. These are not hand-fed deer that are friends with you.
"It’s not up to us at this point to go ahead and do away with (hunting preserves). It’s up to us to say, ‘Okay, we’re going to regulate it and make sure that they’re playing by some rules,’ and moving forward, we make sure we keep an eye on them."
The Indiana Wildlife Federation opposed the bill for moral and health reasons, according to Barbara Simpson, its executive director. "Captive deer operations are not ethical hunting," she said. "They violate the ideas of fair chase and are a violation of the public trust."
CWD is a concern, especially as animals are brought into Indiana from out-of-state to stock the preserves, she noted. If the disease were to enter the state, it could have an impact on Indiana’s multimillion-dollar wild deer industry, she said.
Simpson said the Federation "absolutely supports ethical hunting." Many of the organization’s owners are hunters and among its members are several county conservation clubs, she noted.
"We’ve been working very hard over the years to educate people," Simpson said. "When I hear people say, ‘It’s private property and I can do what I want,’ it makes me cringe a little bit."
In early February, the Indiana Court of Appeals ruled the state DNR didn’t have the authority to ban hunting preserves. In its ruling, the court stated: "If high-fence hunting is to be prohibited in Indiana, it will require further legislative intervention."
If his bill does not become law, current hunting preserves will operate without regulation, Eberhart said earlier this month. "The law is silent on this issue and the courts have said the same," he explained. "We can choose to accept common-sense regulations or live in the wild, wild west."
Eberhart said he authored the legislation because about 10 years ago, state DNR officials told hunting preserve owners their operations were illegal after previously telling them were legal.
