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Post by hatchetjack on Jan 8, 2016 12:31:48 GMT -5
Sadly the first Senate hearings are next Monday and I won't be able to attend. I think they are on 195 and 109 the wild animal bill and the high fence bill respectively.
iga.in.gov/legislative/2016/committees/natural_resources
Jack
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Post by Woody Williams on Jan 15, 2016 16:33:01 GMT -5
My thoughts....
I do not believe that deer should be sold to the highest bidder. It is my opinion that the commercialization of wildlife will doom the sport of hunting. Therefore I am opposed to any cervid farming for the purpose of selling the animal to be shot on any fenced facility for sport.
I do not have a problem with cervids being farmed for the expressed purpose of meat, velvet, antlers, urine or semen.
Hunting already has a rough row to hoe fighting off the ant-hunters and trying to recruit more hunters. We do not need anything that casts a bad light on hunting.
There is no doubt in my mind that ANY penned “hunting”, canned or otherwise, will be used by the anti-hunters as further proof that we hunters care about nothing but killing. Of course nothing could be further from the truth. But, that will be ammunition for them.
IF they are allowed to keep up their “deer farming/shooting” then I think strong and enforced regulations should be in place.
My recommendations are:
Size of facility:
1) Nothing less than 200 acres should be considered for a “shooting preserve”. Of that amount, half should be adequate cover for the deer’s escape.
2) No “grand fathering” in of existing smaller facilities for “shooting preserves”.
3) Deer farming for meat, velvet, urine or semen can be any size within the realms of humane treatment of the animals.
Fencing
1) All fences around ANY deer farm or shooting preserve should be 10 foot tall. Deer can easily clear an 8 foot fence.
2) Because of the possibilities of disease spread back and forth between the fence with native whitetails ALL deer farm or shooting preserves should be double fenced with 10 foot fences. A friend of mine had a captive herd and was constantly repairing the fence because his bucks would fight through the fence with wild bucks. He had lost several deer through a hole that was created by this fighting. A double fence would lessen the possibility of escape and/or disease spread..
3) A single fence can be compromised by fallen trees or large tree limbs.
Diseases
1) A major subject for debate has been whether or not these type facilities further the spread of diseases such as CWD and Bovine TB. I would want all deer within these facilities to be checked for CWD and Bovine TB at their slaughter. As soon as a reliable live test is made available ALL deer within the facility should be tested and those records made available to the pertinent authorities.
2) The tax payers of Indiana (both sportsmen and general public) are not responsible for ANY indemnification (State funds/taxes/IDNR will not be responsible for any costs when a facility loses deer due to disease check or eradication if TB or CWD is found) . Preserve and deer farmers need to insure their deer herds as well as post a bond for any damages/costs the state of Indiana might incur.
Jurisdiction
1) Since the whitetail deer is most commonly known as a wild animal in the state of Indiana and a dead whitetail in the back of a truck could very well come from the wild or a “shooting preserve” I would request that jurisdiction over these facilities be under the jurisdiction of the Indiana Department of Natural Resources.
2) All present game regulations, required licenses and seasons would have to be adhered to.
3) As with any other properties that are deer hunted, the deer farms would be subject to unannounced visitation by the IDNR.
Advertising
1) If “shooting preserves” are allowed I would like to request that they NOT be allowed to advertise their services as “hunting”. As stated previously hunting is going to be taking a hit on these type of operations. They may call it slaughter, harvest or anything they want as long as the words “hunt” or “hunting” are not included in the wording.
Record Keeping
1) All animals that are on the facility should be identified with an electronic chip, tattoo or ear tag as to what/which animal they are.
2) All animals that are received and taken out of the facility (dead or alive) need to be recorded along with any pertinent information such as diseases, etc.
3) All bucks antlers need to be plugged with an identifying plug so as the trophy record keeping organizations can differentiate them from wild deer.
Ownership
When a “preserve” owner retires or dies so does the preserve, no sale or transfer of the shooting preserve.
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Post by budd on Jan 17, 2016 7:50:53 GMT -5
I see all the rules YOU would like to request, do you also believe all these rules should be carried over to the bird (slaughtering) reserves or just the deer farms? Does the DNR still put on bird hunts where they put out farm raised birds for people to slaughter?
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