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Panel taking up legalizing fenced-in hunting preserves

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) – A proposal that would legalize Indiana’s high-fenced deer-hunting preserves could be on the move again in the state Legislature.

A Senate committee is scheduled to hold a public hearing Monday on a bill that sets up a licensing and inspection process for Indiana’s four current preserves where farm-raised deer are hunted.

Those preserves currently aren’t regulated in Indiana and the state appeals court has ruled the Department of Natural Resources overstepped its authority in trying to shut them down.

The House voted last month in favor of the proposal, but Senate President Pro Tem David Long put it on hold for House and Senate members to work in private on a possible compromise.

Long recently said he didn’t think simply legalizing the current preserves is a permanent solution.