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Bill Regulating High-Fenced Deer Hunting Defeated Again

Maycomb Paynes
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https://www.flickr.com/photos/24730945@N03/

For the second year in a row, the Senate shot down a bill regulating Indiana’s high-fenced deer hunting preserves.

The legality of the state’s high-fenced hunting facilities has been the subject of legislative debate and court proceedings for a decade.

This year’s legislation would have limited the industry to the four existing preserves and imposed significant regulation.

That would have included minimum fence height and acreage, required yearly inspections, a ban on hunting sedated deer, and a requirement that only deer born and raised in Indiana can be hunted on the preserves.

Sen. Pete Miller, R-Avon, says regulation doesn’t get to the heart of the matter.

“One of these operations has advertised in the past a 100 percent hit rate.  You come to their facility, you’re guaranteed to come out.  That’s not hunting. That is a slaughter, folks,” Miller said before the Senate vote on the issue.

But Sen. Carlin Yoder, R-Middlebury, pointed to a Court of Appeals decision that said the preserves are legal, forcing the legislature to make a choice.

“Do we allow those businesses that we allowed to begin in the first place to do so legally, regulated, in a way that we can be comfortable with?  Or do we just let them go, unregulated, to do whatever they want?” Yoder asked.

The bill was defeated 27 to 23. It’s officially dead this session.

The preserves can continue to operate while the court case goes on.

Brandon Smith is excited to be working for public radio in Indiana. He has previously worked in public radio as a reporter and anchor in mid-Missouri for KBIA Radio out of Columbia. Prior to that, he worked for WSPY Radio in Plano, Illinois as a show host, reporter, producer and anchor. His first job in radio was in another state capitol, in Jefferson City, Missouri, as a reporter for three radio stations around Missouri. Brandon graduated from the University of Missouri-Columbia with a Bachelor of Journalism in 2010, with minors in political science and history. He was born and raised in Chicago.
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