The Origin of Fair Chase Hunting

In 1883, Theodore Roosevelt came to Dakota Territory to hunt buffalo before the buffalo went extinct. Over the next several years, the future president developed his conservation philosophy in the Badlands and on the prairies of land that would become our state. His conservation philosophy grew out of his love of hunting and his love of the outdoors kindled by his experience on the Dakota plains.

TR took office as President in 1900 after the assassination of William McKinley. There were 41,000 elk left in North America. White-tailed deer numbered 500,000 nationwide. Today there are over 33 million White-tail deer and over 1 million elk in the U. S. To put that in perspective, there are more White-tailed deer in North Dakota in 2009, than there were in the entire United States in 1900. Why the change? The introduction of Fair Chase and game laws to regulate hunting followed by the gradual evolution of North American Model of Wildlife Management. 

The North American Model of Wildlife Management is the product of time and research by revolutionary thinkers. Hunters led the way and Hunters paid the way driven by a love of hunting and a love of the wild.

Theodore Roosevelt and George Bird Grinnell led the charge against unregulated, free-for-all market and subsistence hunting. They laid the foundation for the abundant wildlife we have today with laws and regulations based on biology. Under their leadership, states outlawed hunting except for regulated seasons based on scientific research. Roosevelt and his cohorts in the conservation movement pressured states to outlaw killing birds for feathers used to adorn ladies' hats. They developed the concept of Fair Chase which became the basis for everything that followed. According to Historian Douglas Brinkley, people that slaughtered our wildlife to the point of extinction for commercial gain, vilified TR for interfering with their freedom to kill animals when and where they decided to kill them. The commercial operators that unleashed their hate on Roosevelt didn't understand that an extinct animal is poor table fare and extinction was on the menu for much of our wildlife, large and small. Roosevelt saw the problem and did something about it. Conservation and the North American Model of Wildlife Management were the result.

The Roosevelt conservation revolution revolved around two key concepts. First, the introduction of regulated hunting, and second, the end of the commercial trade of wildlife.

The high fence shooting galleries operating in North Dakota ignore Fair Chase. They commercialize game by selling a set of antlers bred for size to a shooter too lazy to actually hunt. Fencing game then selling shots at the animal goes against everything legitimate hunters and legitimate hunting stands for, everything we have evolved to. 

ND Hunters for Fair Chase see the problem, and like TR, we are doing something about it. Theodore Roosevelt said, "Whenever you are asked if you can do a job, tell ‘em, 'Certainly, I can!' Then get busy and find out how to do it." That's what the members of North Dakota Hunters for Fair Chase are doing.

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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