ttha_aggie_09 said:

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NRH ag 10 said:

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Sean beat me to it. Canned hunts see not good for the image of hunting.

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True canned hunts, yes. No one should shoot a deer in a "pen"

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Tne problem comes when some folks think 10,000 acres is a pen.

B-1 83 said:

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ttha_aggie_09 said:

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NRH ag 10 said:

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Sean beat me to it. Canned hunts see not good for the image of hunting.

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True canned hunts, yes. No one should shoot a deer in a "pen"

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Tne problem comes when some folks think 10,000 acres is a pen.

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Does 10,000 acres matter when a deer is bred to a pen, fed in a pen, and then turned out into 10,000 acre pasture for the hunt? The animal has be bred and conditioned to behave as livestock.

You can run a high fence operation on 10,000 acres and have it still be a canned hunt depending on how it's run. Just like you can probably run 1,000 acres high fenced and if it's done right have it not be "canned." It's all in how it's managed.

Does a low fence matter when you can hand Feed wild deer in canyon lake or Austin or wherever else? Deer can be wild and still behave very similar to penned deer.

No way should a pen-raised deer every qualify for any record.

wheelz said:

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No way should a pen-raised deer every qualify for any record.

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1000% agree

Finn has a point. It's all how you manage your hunting operation. An old Aggie wildlife prof I had said one day in class that we would destroy the purity of hunting Texas Whitetails if we ever allowed them to be genetically engineered in pens. However he did support the idea of game proof fencing as a management tool. Bare with me here as this is lengthy....... I was part of a research project on a well known large ranch in Texas. In that project a study was done on a 200 acre pasture with very good cover for game and a similar 1,000 acre pasture with the same cover. Both pastures were high fenced. Both had a population density of 15 acres/deer. Spin cast feeders were set up in both pastures. This was way before game cameras so observations were done with people in blinds and a set of binoculars. We would allow the deer to become accustomed to and use the feeders in both pastures. Then after 6 months we would place, for one day, a yellow 5 gallon plastic bucket within 50 yards of one of the feeders in both the 1000 acre and 200 acre pasture. What was determined was that in the 200 acre pasture EVERY single deer that came into the feeder would key in on that bucket and be very wary of it....to the point that many would not come to the feeder. However on the 1000 acre pasture 87% of the sightings of the deer that frequented that feeder paid no attention to the bucket whatsoever.
It was determined that the deer within the 200 acre pasture were a lot more tuned and aware of their total environment than in the 1000 acre pasture. Not unlike if you came home to your house and your wife moved a chair in the living room......you would notice it right away. But if a chair is moved in your local grocery store you probably would not notice it.
Point made is that hunting a high fence, with good cover, is not a "lay down" hunt, IF the hunts and property are managed correctly. I have helped manage and worked on many high fence ranches varying in size from 500 acres to 6,000 acres. All of those ranches never used pen raised whitetails or brought in any outside genetics. They used the high fence to keep other animals out so they could manage their habitat and range for the proper carrying capacity of that rangeland and to develop their NATIVE whitetail population to reach their full potential by implementing sound deer management practices. By this intensive management they were able to develop some awesome deer. Without utilizing the high fence, and due to the hunting pressure and practices of the surrounding properties, they never would have been able to have their deer herd reach its true potential. Hunting deer on these ranches can be just as challenging as on any low fence ranch....if not more so. It's all on how you manage it. Like everything else, being educated on the topic is the key. High fences get bad marks because of the unethical canned hunts everybody has heard of. In all of those cases they were done on commercial hunting "game farms" that were interested in making the most money as quickly as possible. It has been my experience that the overwhelming majority of landowners who have high fenced their properties have done so to be able to use it as a tool and develop a properly managed, healthy game herd, with an end goal to raise the most quality deer that they are able to - NOT to do "canned hunts."
I just think it is somewhat unfair for a person who will talk about "fair chase hunting" and condemn a high fence managed ranch, all along checking when the deer come to their feeders with their I-phone cellular game cameras.
I may not agree with raising "engineered" whitetails in pens, or how a person chooses to hunt, but I will fight for the property rights of any landowner to do what he wants with his land as long as he is not breaking any laws. We as hunters and gun owners need to all work and support one another. When we get divided is when the anti-hunting, anti-gun zealots start gaining strength.

Paragraph breaks . . . they're good.

Go Stros!!!!

AgEng06 said:

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To be fair, that post isn't misleading in any way. They don't use the word "hunt" and actually say "harvest" as you would for livestock. As far as I can tell they are representing it like it is.

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For public consumption, "harvesting" is often used, even where fair chase occurs, it being more PC and all. "Killed" or "shot" is just for us Neanderthals

Maybe "this is the deer the shooter purchased" would be a good descriptor..