With Indiana's Supreme Court bringing an end to a 10-year legal battle over high-fence hunting preserves, the deer farming industry is stepping in to try to set standards for itself.
Deer and elk farmers have formed the Indiana Deer Advisory Council, to recommend standards for deer treatment and how they are hunted.
Advisory council chairman Gary Jacobson says he believes getting the group’s seal of approval will be valuable enough to preserve owners that they’ll follow whatever rules IDAC sets.
Environmentalists and some hunters' groups have fought to close or regulate the hunting preserves, arguing that they violate sporting principles and have been breeding grounds in other states for outbreaks of chronic wasting disease. Defenders of the preserves argue a few unethical operators have given the industry an unfair image.
Legislators tried and failed to agree on standards for the preserves. Jacobson says the panel includes deer farmers, preserve owners, and representatives of the Indiana Board of Animal Health, and hopes to issue recommended best practices as soon as possible.
The council has no enforcement authority, but will issue its own seal of approval to preserves which adhere to good practices, in hopes of steering consumers there. Jacobson says there need to be standards to ensure the state's 400 or so deer farms still have an end market for their herds.