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High-fenced Hunting Bill Likely To Pass, Maybe With Changes

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Legislation imposing rules and restrictions on Indiana’s high-fenced deer hunting facilities looks likely to pass through the House. But, industry opponents are still lobbying for stricter language.

Environmental and conservation organizations have long opposed high-fenced deer hunting, an industry left unregulated by the courts last year.

The likelihood of the General Assembly banning the industry outright this session is essentially zero, but the opposition groups hope to strengthen proposed rules and restrictions.

One of those is fence height. The bill mandates a single fence of at least eight feet.  Erin Huang, of the Humane Society of the United States, says that’s not enough.

“A single eight-foot fence is not high enough to keep wild deer out and captive deer in,” Huang says. “We know that you can spread chronic wasting disease through nose-to-nose transmission at the fence line.”

But deer farmer Gary Jacobsen, who heads a group advocating for the industry, says he’s had experience using an eight-foot fence.

“It was a wild deer from the outside trying to get in and repeatedly jumping at the eight-foot fence – couldn’t get in,” Jacobsen says.

High-fenced hunting opponents also want to raise the facility license fees. The bill currently sets those at $300.  The House sponsor of the bill proposed a $2,000 fee in last year’s version and says he’ll consider raising the amount in this year’s bill.

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.