It's a story that started with one runaway deer. Coming next weekend: http://indy.st/1isGOUB


Indianapolis Star investigative reporter Ryan Sabalow spent a year and a half looking into an industry that many might not know even exists: deer farming

I met Ryan on a duck hunt in December. He is a good dude. I'm really looking forward to this story.

Deer hunting has changed immensely since I was a kid. Back then when you killed a buck people would ask how many points. If you said an 8 or a 10, you'd heard people say something like "great deer, must have been a big one" as congratulations. Now people want to know what it scored and how old the deer was. And some of these local "deer gurus" will flat out let you know if they think the deer was too young to be killed and needed "another year" to reach his potential. Especially if your deer was on their "hit list".....

There are many places that make a good living selling hunts, and there are many more that sell "hunts" behind fences where the quarry can be a genetically engineered freak of nature. If that doesn't do it for you, then there are the places that sell live deer and/or semen to help you "boost" the quality of "your" herd and "grow your own" freak of nature. It's become like drugs to some people. Their obsession knows no bounds and no sum of money is too great to spend in their quest for big antlers.

In the end, when leasing prices enough hunters out of the sport and CWD kills a big portion of the herd, all in the name of trophy bucks, I guess we'll figure out that yes....you can take things too far.

Hopefully he separates the Fair chase Hunting from the pen "SHOOTING" .... There is a big difference!!

Here is another short clip... www.indystar.com/videos/news/2014/03/24/6839629/