Editorial: Pursuit of big antlers isn’t worth the risks


In one appalling case in Indiana, according to prosecutors, hunters paid a preserve owner thousands of dollars to stalk and kill deer inside a 1-acre pen. Some deer, according to witnesses, were drugged to make them easier to shoot. One deer, suffering from pneumonia, was so sick that it apparently was propped up so that a hunter crouching nearby could kill it with a rifle. The hunter paid $15,000 for the privilege.

All for the antlers.

And, on the part of breeders and preserve owners, all for the money.

The high-fenced hunting industry in Indiana has long raised alarming questions about sportsmanship, humane treatment of the animals and the disease risk posed to wild deer when out-of-state animals are introduced here. Animal protection groups and many hunters have pushed for stronger regulation of preserves, and for an outright ban, on high-fenced hunting, with little success.

Now, an investigation by Indianapolis Star reporter Ryan Sabalow and photographer Robert Scheer has revealed the dangers posed by the practice of captively breeding, transporting and then shooting deer inside fenced hunting grounds.

The market, loosely regulated, has developed because the deer have been bred to grow abnormally large racks of antlers. The deer are kept inside fences to ensure that wealthy clients have much better odds of finding and killing a prized buck. In some cases, hunters even select specific animals from online catalogs.

All of that makes a mockery of traditional hunting. Worse, it poses a health hazard for other deer, livestock and potentially even humans when diseased deer are transported across state lines.

In the case described above, the hunting preserve’s owner, Russ Bellar, served nine months in federal prison because of his operation’s excesses. But lobbyists representing deer farmers have pushed for the federal government to eliminate some of the rules that got Bellar in trouble.

State regulations, meanwhile, are all over the map. In Indiana, there’s legal confusion about whether farm-bred and -raised deer are classified as livestock or wildlife. Courts have issued conflicting rulings on the matter, and as a result the Department of Natural Resources has stopped regulating the four hunting preserves that operate in the state.

It’s incumbent on the Indiana General Assembly to clear up the confusion. Lawmakers also should finally put a permanent end to high-fenced hunting in the state in light of the serious abuses revealed by The Star’s investigation.

Congress also needs to set tougher standards for the interstate transport of deer, elk and other animals bound for hunting preserves.

The pursuit of big antlers simply isn’t worth the health hazards and ethical challenges the industry creates.

http://www.indystar.com/story/opinion/2014/04/04/editorial-pursuit-big-antlers-worth-risks/7324021/