Check this out http://www.thestate.com/mld/thestate/16502915.htm
And those duck boys complain about high fences and feeders? Bet they have heaters and everything in their duck blinds,

I was at a place last year in Illinois that did controlled-release duck hunts. (They also did pheasants.)
Very weird to see hundreds of ducks in a pen, waiting to be freed and shot at.

Me, I wouldn't hunt ducks that way, but I've hunted pheasants a couple of times. I know it's not for everyone, but I thought it was fun and challenging.

Anyway, let's take this part of the story:
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Casey Pheiffer, who tracks shooting preserves for the Humane Society, said South Carolina’s ban on new mallard preserves is one of the first she has heard of in the country. She said it will protect ducks raised on farms and sold for shooting.

“Shooting preserves are inhumane because the birds go straight from the crate to the field,” she said. “These animals have no chance for survival. There is no fair chase.”

She believes the state should ban shooting preserves for other animals, such as quail, pheasants and chukars. Pheasants and chukars, a type of European partridge, were introduced to the U.S. for hunting.

Flushing tame animals of any kind is cruel, Pheiffer said.
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Let's keep in mind that the HSUS thinks *all* hunting is cruel. From their website: "...sport hunting—the killing of wild animals as recreation—is fundamentally at odds with the values of a humane, just and caring society." (www.hsus.org/wildlife/issues_facing_wildlife/hunting/)

Also, as far as: “These animals have no chance for survival. There is no fair chase" goes, when it comes to pheasants, they have a pretty good chance for survival. Anyone who doesn't think so has probably never been on one of these hunts.

I hadn't really paid any attention to this topic until now, and while going to one of those places would not be everyones idea of fun, to a lot of folks it is.

The real story here. is HSUS's stand on hunting. They are a greater enemy to hunting and hunters than PETA ever thought about. The reason I say this, is because HSUS has credability with the state and federal goverments. PETA does not.

As a group, we need to be paying more attention to HSUS's movements and politcal involvement, especially in the upcoming political campaigns. JMO.

LMAO High fence duck hunting!!!!!

Sounds like a typical duck hunt to me. I heard thay had 8' strings tied to their little legs so they could fly around in circles and have a sporting chance.

If those 8000 ducks weren't raised to be shot, they would have never been born. No one is going to raise 8000 ducks to look at.

I think high fenced "hunting" isn't really hunting, but there are times that it can be used to promote the sport of hunting. It can be used if you want to take a young child on a guaranteed deer hunt so he won't get bored, or if you are training a new hunting dog. To a real hunter neither are hunting, but they have their place.

Hmmmmmm the only thing I have to say about this is "SOUNDS MORE LIKE KILLING THAN HUNTING TO ME" of coarse I wouldn't expect anything less from our society today.

As opposed to High Fence Trout Fishing????

High Fence Trout Fishing

I am indifferent to both and have done neither but I find it interesting how people make distinctions between one versus the other from an ethical point of view.

ndhunter, that is good.

Ndhunter that is a very interesting point, I have never done it, and at my age probably never will. But I would be willing to bet that some people will think about it now that you bought up "high fence trout fishing" Now if high fence is killing and low fence is hunting, is high fence trout killing and low fence trout fishing? We may to get PETA in on this for a legal opinion.

I say to each their own! But here are my comments on this. There are 2 aspects to hunting and fishing: 1) finding the game and 2) harvesting the game. Many folks don’t like #1, and they want to cut corners, personally, I enjoy #1, finding the game is the most challenging/rewarding part! Duck hunting for example, hunting public is all about #1, vs say a private lease where you drive up to a tank with a blind, I just don’t find that challenging. Would I do it? Sure! Just not as rewarding as public!!

In regard to high fence trout, same thing really. I have done the stocked trout thing, but if you want to fish trout in Texas, this is your only choice, otherwise I would be doing #1 here too!

Would the same principal hold true for finding and harvesting dove? Seems like hunting dove on a lease would not be as challenging as hunting dove on public land. Is hunting dove on a lease less rewarding too, cutting corners so to speak?

Ducks, trout, dove...interesting distinctions.

I don't think a dove lease is much different than public land hunting. The dove know no boundaries, they just know where there is food, water and a roost for the night. And I have never heard of people pen raising dove for hunting purposes. Have heard of pen raising pheasants for hunting purposes but the only place I knew of released them when they are old enough so they had reverted to the wild by the time they are hunted and they were as hard to hunt as naturally wild pheasants. But that was 40 something years ago '64 or '65 and the farmer just raised them to restock not a preserve or anything like they have today. I know they pen raise quail for hunting but have never hunted one of those places either.

Here is how I look at the situation.

Whether it be a pen raised duck, pheasant, chucker, quail etc. for the purpose of hunting, so be it. I have done the pheasant thing when I was young. The guy goes out spins the bird or puts the head under the wing and puts pheasant next to bush.

I have fished many, many streams, creeks and rivers that were planted with trout in the Sierra's. I felt satisfied with the limit I had caught and they ate pretty good.

I have fished man made ponds and lakes that had hatchery raised bass transplanted to it when they were 3-5 inches long. It took years for these fish to grow to 5-8 pounds, but again they were not native to that pond/lake.

All scenerio's are the same and people want to look at them different. Like said already " no one in their right mind is going to raise pheasants or ducks just for the sake of looking at them"

In Califonia "pheasant clubs" are a big demand. My buddy owns "Mendez Game Birds" and travels all over the state shipping thousands of pheasant and chuckers to game preserves. These birds are hatched from incubaters(not mama bird)and fed high protein to grow faster and be sold sooner.