INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. — Four hunting preserves in Indiana will remain unaffected after a bill designed to regulate the facilities was defeated by the state Senate last week.

The legislation (H.B. 1453) would have allowed the four facilities open in 2014 to continue operating; no new preserves would have been authorized. The bill would have set requirements for such things as acreage, fence height, licensing and inspections. Only deer born and raised in Indiana would have been permitted in the preserves.

The Senate voted 27-23 against the measure April 14. A similar bill was defeated in the Senate by one vote during the 2014 legislative session.

The recent bill was in response to a February ruling by the Indiana Court of Appeals which said the state’s Department of Natural Resources (DNR) didn’t have the authority to ban hunting preserves, said Sen. Susan Glick (R-District 13). In its ruling, the court said if such operations are to be prohibited in the state, further legislative intervention will be required.

The ruling said hunting preserves are legal in the state, but "we believe they should be regulated for the protection of both the public (herds) and the private herds," Glick said on the Senate floor before April 14 vote. "The bill provides a rigid framework within which the four existing hunting preserves must operate."

The hunting preserves in Blackford, Harrison, Kosciusko and Marshall counties have been operating without regulation while the lawsuit that prompted the Court of Appeals ruling works its way through the state court system. The preserves sued the DNR after the agency banned such hunting in 2005.