Indiana House panel backs setting fenced deer hunting rules

INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Indiana House could vote in the coming days on setting requirements for the state's high-fenced deer hunting preserves.

A House committee voted 8-4 Monday to endorse the proposed requirements, including that they have a minimum of 100 acres surrounded by fencing at least 8 feet high.

The Senate approved the bill last month, although opponents of the measure argue it doesn't support real hunting since animals cannot escape the fences and that preserves should be banned entirely.

Bill sponsor Rep. Sean Eberhart calls the proposal a good compromise since such hunting preserves have operated unregulated in Indiana since a court ruling a year ago that the Indiana Department of Natural Resources didn't have the authority to do so.