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Sunday, January 29, 2012

Ind. Law - "Indiana does about-face on fenced hunting"

Updating earlier ILB entries from Jan. 25th and Jan. 27th on this session's canned hunting bill, HB 1265, Lesley Stedman Weidenbener has a story today in the Evansville Courier Journal, headed "Indiana does about-face on fenced hunting." Some quotes:

INDIANAPOLIS — At a long, crowded committee meeting last week about one of Indiana’s most controversial hunting issues, officials from the Department of Natural Resources kept quiet.

Department Director Rob Carter did not testify about whether the General Assembly should legalize high-fenced hunting preserves. His legislative aid did not take a position. And the agency’s top spokesman deferred questions about the issue.

It was a curious position — or lack thereof.

Just a few years ago, then-department Director Kyle Hupfer was taking a very different tack. Hupfer — Gov. Mitch Daniels’ first leader of the agency that regulates hunting — was pushing to shut captive deer hunting preserves down completely.

Under previous governors, department leaders had OK’d the operations using game breeders permits. But after a study of the businesses — which generally charge hunters thousands of dollars for a crack at shooting deer — Hupfer determined state law did not authorize them.

But before Hupfer took steps to close the preserves, he gave the General Assembly time to change the law. That led to contentious debate on the issue. * * *

In the end, lawmakers didn’t act and the DNR passed new rules — signed by Daniels — to ban fenced hunting preserves.

One owner — Rodney Bruce, who operates the 240-acre Whitetail Bluff preserve in Harrison County — sued to stay open. His lawsuit, which remains unsettled, essentially stopped the state’s actions to close the businesses.

Over the years, lawmakers have looked at the issue repeatedly. * * * None of the bills ever became law, at least in part because legislative leaders shy away from issues in which a lawsuit is pending.

This good review concludes that IDNR's failure to provide input:
despite the agency’s own rules declaring the preserves illegal [is] an about-face that has yet to have an explanation. As the bill — which will now be considered by the full House — progresses, maybe Hoosiers will get one.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on January 29, 2012 10:52 AM
Posted to Environment | Indiana Law