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Friday, February 24, 2006

Ind. Law - Bill to continue canned deer hunting is dead, but legislative efforts continue

Lesley Stedman Weidenbener writes today in the Louisville Courier Journal:

The House approved an amendment yesterday that would require the state to compensate the owners of fenced hunting preserves that are forced out of business if the state begins enforcing a ban on fenced deer hunting. * * *

The amendment, offered by state Rep. Dale Grubb, D-Covington, was added to Senate Bill 87, which deals with rural economic development issues. It would require the Department of Natural Resources to pay fair market value for any preserves that are forced out of business.

Earlier in the session, the House passed a bill that would have phased out fenced hunting operations over seven years.

But Senate President Pro Tem Robert Garton, R-Columbus, killed that measure after learning that a Harrison County preserve operator sued the state to stop the new policy from taking effect. Garton has a long-standing policy not to consider legislation that would affect the outcome of a court case. * * *

Owners have complained to lawmakers that they've sunk hundreds of thousands of dollars into their operations and now have mortgages and other loans that they can't pay if the state shuts them down.

Under a separate provision approved by the House earlier this week, the state would also close private bird hunting preserves. That proposal is not expected to become law.

If it did, however, the amendment yesterday would require the Department of Natural Resources to compensate those owners, too.

Rep. Bob Bischoff, D-Lawrenceburg, warned that the price of compensating the dozen or so deer-hunting operators, as well as the owners of about 50 bird preserves, "would be devastating for the DNR."

But Rep. David Wolkins, R-Winona Lake, said the department's decision to ban fenced hunting would be equally devastating to the preserve owners.

See also this story in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on February 24, 2006 08:55 AM
Posted to Indiana Government | Indiana Law