Indiana House passes captive deer-hunting bill
Indiana House passes captive deer-hunting bill
Ryan Sabalow, ryan.sabalow@indystar.com 1:38 p.m. EST February 18, 2015
The Indiana House of Representatives passed a bill late Tuesday that would legalize high-fence deer hunting.
House Bill 1453 passed with a 55 to 39 vote.
The bill would legalize high-fence hunting at any preserve that had been in operation before 2015.
The bill now moves to the Indiana Senate, where it has a strong chance of being heard before the Natural Resources Committee. The committee's chairwoman, LaGrange Republican Sen. Susan Glick, was added Tuesday as a co-sponsor.
HB 1453 was widely expected to breeze through the House, where similar legislation has passed easily in the past.
The Senate has been another story.
In previous years, Republican Sen. Pro Tempore David Long, R-Fort Wayne, who has compared captive deer hunting to dog fighting, has blocked the bills from being heard.
More:
http://www.indystar.com/story/news/2015/02/18/indiana-house-passes-captive-deer-hunting-bill/23620599/
Judi Lynn
(160,217 posts)February 18, 2015
Indiana House Passes Pro-Captive Hunting Bill
H.B. 1453 regulates inhumane captive hunting of deer, elk and other cervids, captive hunting, trophy hunting
The Indiana House passed legislation allowing privately-owned facilities in the state to stock deer and elk for trophy-seekers, letting them pay to shoot the semi-tame animals trapped in enclosures for guaranteed kills. By shipping deer and elk across state lines to be stocked in these fenced enclosures, captive hunts greatly increase the risk for deadly chronic wasting disease to infect native wildlife. Humane Society of the United States Indiana State Director Erin Huang issued the following statement in response:
The Indiana House made a disappointing mistake by passing a bill in support of captive hunting. These facilities lack any element of fair chase, and this mockery of traditional hunting threatens our wild deer herds and is a black eye on our state. By passing this bill, the House has placed the special interests of a few individuals over the health of our wildlife and the wishes of the majority of Hoosiers. House Bill 1453 was strongly opposed by a wide group of organizations and individuals, including animal advocates, environmental conservationists and ethical sportsmen. The Humane Society of the United States strongly urges the Senate to oppose this bill.
In 2005, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources issued an emergency rule banning captive hunts, but a lawsuit filed by captive hunt operators stalled enforcement of the ban. A handful of captive hunt facilities continued thereafter to operate in Indiana under an injunction. After two courts issued conflicting decisions, a recent Court of Appeals decision declared that the DNR did not have clear authority to ban such operations under current law.
A competing bill, Senate Bill 442, clarifies the authority of the DNR to regulate captive wildlife, and would completely prohibit captive hunting, hunting via the Internet, and hunting with the use of drones in Indiana. S.B. 442, introduced by Sen. Pete Miller, R-Avon, is pending in the Senate Natural Resources Committee and has not received a hearing.
More:
http://www.humanesociety.org/news/press_releases/2015/02/indiana-passes-captive-hunting-bill-021815.html
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)But what about the disabled or homebound? Should they not be allowed to hunt?
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)...so I can shoot them there?
GusBob
(7,286 posts)these caged deer are ripe for chronic wasting disease
Myrina
(12,296 posts)The Derp is strong in these parts.
sharp_stick
(14,400 posts)morons to slaughter their own animals, call it hunting and get the idiots to pay for it?