How many are there?

According to the series of articles that the IndyStar published there are approximately 382 high fence hunting areas and farms in the state of Indiana.

Does anyone know if that number is realistic and how many of these places allow hunting?

Are you talking across the Nation or in Indiana???

There are 4 in Indiana as of now

382 farms and preserves in the state of Indiana. I corrected it.

So out of all of these places there are only four hunting preserves?

Are the deer farms all high fence too?

Yes, they have be high fence according to BOAH rules (Board of Animal Health). Even if it's just one acre. Remember the BOAH rules for farming captive cervids are very specific and the DNR rules hunting captive cervids are non-existent.

Jack

At this point I veture to say there are more Deer/elk leaving this state vs coming in.....That may soon change once there is a Greater demand.

I belive SHOOTING would be the better word vs Hunting!!!

Do they do periodic testing for CWD or other diseases @ the farms?

And does anyone know if there has ever been a case of CWD on any of the farms under the guise of BOAH?

There is NO live test for CWD....

The captive cervid farms have to test every animal over the age 12 months when it dies. As stated there is currently no live test for CWD.

There has been no case of CWD discovered in Indiana although we did have an introduction of TB brought in from out-of-state back in 2009 and traced to 4 herds in Indiana that were eventually depopulated.

Jack

There's a place just north of webster,In that has deer in a pin, Never have figured out why he has them, Bean do you know what he does with them? Does he just breed them or does he sell to other operations? Just curious.

If the shooting preserves are deemed legal, what governmental agency will be charged with watching over them as apparently the IDNR will not?

Present bill would put them under BOAH. If the bill passes I would like it to be BOAH so IDNR has no responsibility or expense when CWD is found in a captive herd.

I'm looking at this from the financial side, chances are it will be found first in a pen. When it is found the cost to manage(not eradicate it can't happen) would belong to the agency who has control. If it is found in the wild fine, let sportsmen dollars pay for it. But, if found in captive herd let BOAH pay for it out of its' budget, still tax dollars but not "my" money.

The deer farmers nor shooting preserves want this, they want reimbursed. They don't care where the money comes from, they just want it. A business that has no risk......

I don't support the high fence hunting operations in any way, shape or form, but these farms existing in the state does beg the question.

Other than the lack of a hunting aspect, why are these farms seemingly getting a pass from most sportsman when it comes to the discussion and concern over CWD?

Joe - I'm not sure this bill would put them under BOAH for hunting. The bill amends IC14 which is the natural resources section. All references in HB1453 appear to reference "the department" which in IC14-8-2-27 is the Department of Natural Resources. This puts it squarely in DNR's purview but with limited power. BOAH is located in IC 15 and is unaffected by this bill.


Hoping I am wrong,
Jack

Then Jack that needs to be changed and hopefully it does get changed...

those farms, like my neighbors, arent shipping deer in left and right for killing. Theyre kinda self sustaining almost.

Its the high volume of bucks being moved around from farm to farm that greatly increases the risks of spreading disease.

Oh yeah, those deer pimps dont get much if any money out of does...so doe fawns are ofte times killed at birth. No antler=no money=useless to them

the "lucky" ones get sold as "stocker does" to high fence operations

http://www.bucktrader.com/ListingDe...7&name=Make-your-group-of-DNAd-Bred-Does

The whole thing just makes one sick....

In my opinion they should not be farming deer/wildlife. The mistake was made years ago to allow some deer to be kept under the game breeders permit. Some people were raising deer for urine sales. Then came the idea of shooting them. They discovered they could genetically raise deer to have the huge racks at an early age as well as producing stupid size racks that double the size of what is normally found on a wild whitetail. Read the buck Fever article and watch the video's
http://www.indystar.com/story/news/...5283/?from=global&sessionKey=&autologin=

The biggest problem with the shooting pens is deer from wherever are going to be brought in to be killed. That movement increases the odd that contaminated deer will be trucked in. The killing pens is what drives the markets and movement. Yes there is movement amongst breeders but a lot of the breeding is done with AI

There are 4 canned hunt facilities in the lawsuit.
possibly 5-6 more will claim they were shut down.