Comments on: Opening Up A Can of Worms

By: Moose

Moose — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 14:33:28 +0000

How much land must there be in order for it to be considered fair chase? I’ve hunted public hunting grounds on an island, less then 1800 acres of land with many parts of the island being 200 yards or so across that escape for some of those species was limited to the island because they cannot swim. Does that mean it is not a fair chase? I don’t think so because the habitat is such that the animals have ample cover and multiple opportunities to elude the hunter. I guess based on that I have a hard time saying that a hunt on a similar land size with the barrier being a fence rather then water and it being private rather then public makes the hunt a non fair chase situation. I guess this is the part of the issue I struggle with and I’ll admit my mind is not completely made up on this subject. I read the SCI guidelines and they seem to make sense to me.

By: Danny

Danny — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 13:33:44 +0000

Does it matter if it is a fence or water that contains the animal and prevents escape routes or blocks normal alternate route of travel? Any limit on borders in the natural habitat that prevents an animal from traveling in a certain direction to avoid a startling sound, or scary smell is an unfair limit to the animals ability to survive, therefore is unnatural, therefore unfair to the animal. How is it really a challenge to “hunt” if you know that there are borders that the animals cannot cross? Part of fair hunting practices is knowing that you may have scared the animals away.

By: Moose

Moose — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 01:56:15 +0000

I’ve hunted on an island before that is smaller then many of the high fence ranches out west and it was a animal that could not swim does that violate “fair chase”?

By: Danny

Danny — Thu, 28 Jun 2007 20:20:14 +0000

Canned hunts. That name should be all the information that we need to make up our minds on this issue. If an animal is not allowed to hide or, more importantly, run away from danger due to high fences, then you are not giving the animal a fair chance. You are right when you state that this is a major issue that hurts the pro-hunting people in our country because the extremist, fanatical anti-hunting people are using this as a good example as to why hunting should be banned. I have no problem with people charging money for people to hunt on their property, but to fence it off with HIGH fences is no different than hunting in a zoo. Eventually, inside a fenced off area, every animal WILL walk by you. That is not the case when you hunt on some local farmers property or your own land.
Yes, this is just my opinion, but logic should dictate if we truly want to claim that something is being hunted under “fair chase” standards. High fences do not logically meet this standard of fair chase.