Gundigest

I believe so. I think it should be illegal to put up a high fence and sell hunts. Here in Michigan they are popping up all over the place. They restrict, and redirect natural deer movement, ruin surrounding property hunting, lower surrounding property value, and introduce disease into the natural deer population. CWD made a jump from the Wyoming area to Wisconsinthis way now all the states surrounding Wisconsin are in danger of CWD. I have some friends with property close to high fence pens and their deer hunting is not near what it should be. A piece of property not far from my parents house has two neighbors with high fences on 3 of his 4 sides. That property is not worth anything to anyone except one of the two neighbors. What really irritates me is all the "baiting is not ethical" crap when the high fence pens are popping up left and right. The DNR made baiting illegal and then legal again but you can only have so much out. Then they made electronic feeders illegal even though they put out less than what was legally allowed on the ground and I'm not sure if they are legal again or not.

Whatdoes everyone else think about all these high fences going up?

zak123

They should be illegal.

Double Creek

Should a fence in your back yard be illegal? No...... It's a property rights issue, not a deer hunting issue.... If I want to fence my property in and fill it up with rattle snakes, I should be able to...... Watch out what you ask for, I think more government is not always good.

Now, is it ruining hunting........ Maybe.....

datamax

Should fenced cattle be illegal ? I mean, isn't it the same thing as farming cattle for slaughter ?

I got no problems with people raising deer and killing them. Calling it HUNTING ? Now thats a whole 'nother ballgame.

Its all ties to my belief that hunting progressing to the "easier" and "better" and "bigger horn" all with less practice/effort is bad for hunting.

kevin1

That's the exact question that my state is debating right now .
We have a few such places , but they aren't regulated in any way and have gone out of their way to avoid regulation even though the largest one just got shut down for 38 Lacey Act violations . I attended a DNR meeting on the subject just last evening with some friends , and the deer farmers were practically bussing in the shills to vote for their side . Since the shills in question were Amish I'm pretty sure that they didn't drive themselves to the meeting . I also noted that many of the deer farmers I had seen at 2 previous meetings at widely divergent locations were at this one as well . Money just makes some folks crazy .

The hunting community here , as well as the majority(85%) of non-hunters when surveyed said that they considered the practice reprehensible at best . This is in line with every single national survey that I've ever personally seen , and squares with my own informal polling as well . I'm adamantly opposed to "slaughter farms" personally , and have mixed feelings about meat , hide , and pee operations .

PastorHunter

I can't honestly say that they should be "illegal" for many of the reasons already mentioned.
There have always been problems between property owners when one wants to do something that somehow affects his neighber. As long as we can own property, that will probably be an issue.
However, when it comes to hunting, I think a good solution would be to have different record books kept for "high fence" hunts or other means of hunting that restrict the animals free range, possibly even animals on management landand animals taken by "pure" fair chase.
I have no problem with high fence, management property, etc, but I think for the sake of records, they should be differentiated.
Just my thoughts.

stinkbelly

Here in Texas wild white tail deer are considered public property. If I put up a high fence around wild deer and keep them away from the public am I steeling? The public doesn't have access to caged wild deer and therefore they are not public property anymore.

I think this is a totally separate situation for people to put up pens and raise deer for slaughter (at butcher or yuppie "hunter"). That is a business and should be delt with differently. Here we have laws to regulate the ranching of deer. I think there should be one addition to the laws. It should say that all bucks must have their antlers removed and none will be allowed to be slaughtered with antlers attached. This would ease the problem with the record books. Very shortly the record books aren't going to mean anything and I am still trying to get one in.

adams

I'm with DC in the thought less government is the best government. I don't agree with shooting animals in a pen and it is something I will never participate in. Data, You hit the nail on the head as far as I'm concerned with this statement,

rybohunter

NO. It should not be illegal. Slippery slope guys.

Not something that I'd ever do, but if some dope wants to drop X thousands to do so. Its his money, and he's making someone else profit. I just wish it wasn't lumped in with hunting in general.

nodog

Da@# straight.

I don't think a fence should be illegal. Would I support an opp. that did, heck no. That's how they should come and go. IMO If there's no market there will be no fences. There is already enough laws to hang a man.