He is not My Man Mitch.


Indiana Gov. Mike Pence isn’t too keen on allowing more high-fenced deer-hunting clubs to open in Indiana.

But the new governor says he’s willing to consider legislation that would allow Indiana’s four existing facilties to stay open.

Such legislation, if passed, could end a nearly 8-year-old court fight over whether Indiana should allow fenced-in shooting clubs that sell high-dollar hunts for farm-raised trophy bucks.

"Gov. Pence is concerned with an expansion of high-fence hunting,” his spokeswoman, Kara Brooks, said in an e-mail. “But (he) is keeping an open mind about legislative efforts to permit existing facilities to continue to operate.”

In 2005, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources passed rules banning high-fence hunting, which animal-rights groups and some hunting organizations disparagingly call “canned hunts.”

The DNR deemed the facilities unsporting and a potential disease risk. The clubs sued in response. A judge issued an injunction prohibiting the clubs’ closures, but only four are now doing business in Indiana. The case is still pending.

Legislative efforts to expand high-fence hunting have died in the General Assembly over the years, but Rep. Matt Ubelhor, R-Bloomfield, said Tuesday he may amend a bill to allow more of the hunting clubs. Ubelhor favors the move because it would provide an in-state market for the nearly 400 Indiana farmers who raise deer and elk.

Currently, most of Indiana’s deer farmers sell their bucks to out-of-state hunting clubs, where clients pay up to $25,000 for a chance to kill a buck bred to have abnormally large antlers.

Ubelhor earlier this year was the lead author of a hunting bill that died in committee. It would have set licensing requirements for the hunting clubs, allowed previously operating clubs to reopen and allow hunting at the facilities from August to April, without bag limits.

Ubelhor said he may amend a senate bill he is co-sponsoring in the House to include some of the language from his earlier bill. Under Ubelhor’s bill, a new high-fence clubs would have to be at least 200 acres, and the deer must have adequate cover and space to hide.

Ubelhor said the matter is likely to come up at a hearing Monday at the House’s Committee on Natural Resources.

Call Star Reporter Ryan Sabalow at 317-444-6179. Follow him on twitter at twitter.com/ryansabalow.

Bill stripping... couldn't get it through the committee, so he'll hide it in some unrelated piece of legislation at the last minute...

Pence needs to stay out of it and let IDNR finish what they started with the court case...

Amen kirk......

Somebody remind me why we have a dnr if they arent allowed to do what they know needs to be done?

I am going to a class on wildlife management at Purdue, one of the Instructors came from Missouri They were having the same problem with politicians running the show and not the MDC some how they got it passed into law that they got a small % of a soft drink Tax,and put it in a fund to finance conservation issues The MDC runs the show now NOT the politicians,,,