Panel set to vote on legalizing fenced-in hunting preserves

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – A state legislative committee could decide whether to support a bill that would legalize high-fenced deer-hunting preserves around Indiana.

The House Natural Resources Committee is scheduled on Monday to vote on a bill for licensing the preserves where farm-raised deer could be hunted.

A handful of such preserves have operated without state approval for several years and previous attempts in the Legislature to legalize them have failed to win approval.

Several hunter and wildlife advocacy groups are against the proposal, saying such preserves offer “canned hunting” and increase the risk of spreading diseases to the state’s wild deer

Supporters say the legalization would help Indiana’s nearly 400 deer farms.