"It is not the critic who counts: not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs and comes up short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming, but who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions, who spends himself for a worthy cause; who, at the best, knows, in the end, the triumph of high achievement, and who, at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat."

Theodore Roosevelt, Citizenship in a Republic Speech

How did North Dakota end up with operations that fence hand raised, hand fed, selectively bred, deer and elk in escape proof pastures to serve as targets for people too lazy to hunt wild, free ranging game?

Here is the answer.

In 1991, with minimum or no input from hunting groups, the North Dakota Legislature passed Senate Bill 2221. The bill created a new species of animal called "Captive Wildlife". The bill defined Captive Wildlife as "... any wildlife held in a cage, fence, enclosure, or other manmade means of confinement that limits its movement within definite boundaries ...."

Captive Wildlife conflicts with federal law, so in 1993, the Legislature passed House Bill 1297. HB 1297 replaced the term "Captive Wildlife" with "Nontraditional Livestock" in an attempt to nullify federal statutory law and a series of court decisions going back to the founding of the nation, decisions that declared wildlife a public trust and charged the state and federal government with the duty to manage that wildlife for the benefit of all the people.

In 1995, the Legislature took another stab at legally domesticating deer and elk. SB 2505 separated free ranging big game from "Nontraditional Livestock" fenced in escape proof fences.

In 1999, HB 1337 transformed "Nontraditional Livestock"  into "Farmed Elk". The Legislature decreed that, "Farmed Elk are Livestock", and that, "... raising of farmed elk is agriculture production and an agriculture pursuit." HB 1337 gave the Agriculture Commissioner the authority to, ".... establish a farmed elk development program to support applied research and to provide demonstrations, financing, marketing, promotion, breed development and registration and other services to the raising of farmed elk."

HB 1276 defined "farmed elk" as elk raised for fiber, meat, or animal byproducts; or raised for breeding, exhibition, or harvest.

At no time did the Legislature write an explicit provision into law that allowed Canned Shoots to take place. Shooting operations slipped in under the radar disguised as farmed elk.

Why did the Legislature covertly legalize shooting fenced deer and elk? The answer is simple: Commercialization of bucks and bulls with big antlers for shame "hunts" driven by Big Money, a commercialization outlawed by Theodore Roosevelt when he and his cohorts took up the fight to save our wildlife.

The legislation cited above does not include "Farmed Deer". Why the exclusion? A wild scientific guess leads to the conclusion that the Legislature would have been hard pressed to justify penning deer in an escape proof pasture for a canned shoot when the state is overrun with deer. The North Dakota Legislature couldn't overtly legalize Canned Shoot operations. Covertly, bet on a nod and a wink to potential High Fence Pasture Safari operators that supported the above legislation. Both sides agree on this point: Antlers bred for size and sold by the point are the driving force behind the Shooting Gallery operations.

Hunting groups slept through the legislative sessions that passed the bills listed above, bills that handed the citizens of this state Canned Shooting operations as a done deal. 

North Dakota hunters invest millions of dollars annually to preserve and manage our public wildlife. The major investment hunters make is in the form of license fees. Approximately 120,000 deer licenses at $20.00 each, plus a general game license at $13.00, or a combination license at $32.00, adds up to millions spent by hunters to support wildlife management.

The Pittman-Robertson excise tax on sporting arms and ammunition generates tens of millions of dollars that the Federal government returns to the states, money earmarked for programs to increase game populations, expand habitat, and educate hunters, and all of it paid for by hunters.

NDSU estimates that North Dakota hunters spend $50,000,000 during the deer season alone.

It is clear that hunters are the primary supporters of the conservation programs that protect the game we hunt. Privatization and commercialization of game threatens the North American Model of Wildlife conservation, the model that let to the abundance of game we enjoy today.

It is equally clear that hunters have been negligent and apathetic when it comes to educating the non-hunting public on our role as the philosophical, scientific, and financial power behind the preservation and management of wildlife. No more. Every legislative bill begins with the words, BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATIVE ASSEMBLY OF NORTH DAKOTA.

The initiated measure up for consideration begins with: BE IT ENACTED BY THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NORTH DAKOTA.

Exercise your Constitutional right as a Citizen. Get involved in this fight. Help enact the Fair Chase is measure. Request a petition. Have your friends, relatives and hunting buddies sign the petition. Ask 2 people you know out of your area to circulate a petition. Ask each of them to get 2 people to do the same. There are 12 canned shooting operations in North Dakota. That is 12 too many. Help get rid of them.

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Fair Chase Defined

The North American Model of Wildlife Management

The Property Rights Smokescreen

Endorsements

Editorials in Support of Fair Chase

The Wildlife Society On Hunting

The Wildlife Society On High Fences