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HSUS >> Hunting >> Campaigns >> Canned Hunts >> State Regulations

Mississippi Canned Hunt Statutes and Regulations

Partial Ban: Ban on native game animals on private shooting preserves only.

Statute

Mississippi law defines canned hunts as the practice of "providing a hunting opportunity under controlled conditions in which native game animals hunted may not have a reasonable opportunity to avoid the hunter".  The state prohibits canned hunt operations and allows for the commission to adopt necessary regulations to control such hunts.  No authorized statutes, however, prohibit the operation of private shooting preserves or commercial wildlife enclosures. §49-7-78.

As provided for in Mississippi statutes, "The Commission on Wildlife, Fisheries and Parks shall not prohibit the operation of a hunting enclosure for hunting or pursuing rabbit, fox or coyote, but the commission may prescribe regulations and require a permit for the operation of such hunting enclosures." Such a hunting enclosure should consist of an area fully enclosed by a fence and constructed in such a manner as prescribed by the commission. 49-7- 34(1)(2).

Game animals which may be hunted under a shooting preserve license include pheasants, chukar partridges, quail, mallards, and black duck as well as native wild animals so long as in accordance with state and federal law. §49-11-15.

Mississippi law also requires that permits be obtained to "import, transfer, sell, purchase, or possess any wild animal classified (as) inherently dangerous..." Id. at §49-8-7. Animals declared by statute to be "inherently dangerous" includes all bears, lions, tigers, jaguars and leopards, snow leopard, cheetah, and all subspecies of cougars. Id. at §49-8-5(b)(ii) and (v)(A-D).

Regulation

According to officials from the Mississippi Department of Wildlife, Fisheries, and Parks, Mississippi does not have regulations pertaining to the establishment and operation of shooting preserves for wild mammals. State law does not permit possession of exotic species. Permits are required for the possession of native wildlife. 

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