Death on a Full Stomach: The Use of Food Plots and Feeding Stations in Canned Hunting

Two methods used to ensure an easy kill at canned hunt operations are food plots and feeding stations. Food plots are small patches of land planted in a crop, such as corn, that the targeted species enjoys. Usually no bigger than a large garden, they are typically bordered by a grassy strip that leaves the animals exposed while they eat. Surrounded by woods or scattered trees that give the hunter cover, food plots turn the animals they attract into standing targets at close range.

Most game ranches that use food plots plant several at a distance from one another so they can switch off randomly from one to another. Animals would soon begin to avoid a food plot that was "overhunted." To further increase the deadliness of food plots, some operators erect permanent ground level blinds or elevated shooting stands overlooking them.

For example, RockBridge Lodge in Alabama assures clients that, "You may hunt over white oak acorns, green fields, persimmon trees, corn food plots on trails to and from bedding areas, and rest assured you will get the opportunity to launch an arrow ... RockBridge deer are fed and managed year round. Specialty crops are planted to attract and hold the game." Shot at close range by hunters hidden from view, the animals never have a chance.

Feeding stations are troughs in which a guide places food at the same time every day for days or weeks before taking a client to hunt over it. In this way the guide knows precisely when animals will appear at the station to eat, and the hunter doesn't have to waste time waiting for a target to show up. In a high-tech variation, some feeding stations use automatic dispensers with electronic timers. As with food plots, feeding stations are often used in conjunction with blinds or shooting stands.

Harry's Lodge in Maine takes no chances on prospective clients worrying that they may not get a point-blank shot. "At Harry's Lodge we run our bear hunts from tree stands over baits. Because of an average of less than 20 yards from tree to bait, we are set-up especially well for all types of weapons, whether you use a gun, bow, or pistol."

The significance of "free-roaming" animals for hunting standards is that the animals have a greater chance of eluding hunters, and hunters have a more difficult time in locating animals and getting in range. Animals lured to food plots, feeding stations, and bait piles are as hard to find and easy to shoot as animals in a pen.

Like everything else in canned hunts, the notion that an animal shot over a food plot, a feeding station, or a bait pile is free-roaming is an illusion. The appearance is there, but the truth is just the opposite.