Missouri Canned Hunt Statutes and Regulations

No Ban: Mammals permitted.

Statute

Missouri statutes define "wildlife" as "all wild birds, mammals, fish and other aquatic and amphibious forms, and all other wild animals, regardless of classification, whether resident, migratory or imported, protected or unprotected, dead or alive; and shall extend to and include any and every part of any individual species of wildlife." A.M.S. §252.020(3). No other Missouri wildlife statute reviewed for this report either permits or prohibits the establishment and operation of a canned hunting facility.

Regulation

A permit is required "to maintain and operate a licensed shooting area and to propagate, hold in captivity, and sell legally acquired pheasants, exotic partridges, quail and ungulates (hoofed animals)." 3 C.S.R. §10-9.560.

"The shooting area for ungulates shall be a single body of land not less than three hundred twenty (320) acres in size and no more than three thousand two hundred (3,200) acres in size, fenced so as to enclose and contain all released game and exclude all hoofed wildlife of the state from becoming a part of the enterprise and posted with signs specified by the department." Licensed hunting preserves are subject to inspection by an agent of the department at any reasonable time. Animal health standards and movement activities shall comply with all state and federal regulations. Id. at §10-9.565(1)(B)1.

Each permittee must keep accurate records "of the number of each species acquired, propagated, sold, released, the number of each species taken and the full name and address of the taker," Id. at §10-9.565(1)(B)2, and any person "taking or hunting ungulates on a licensed shooting area shall have...a valid licensed shooting area hunting permit." Id. at §10-9.565(1)(B)3.

Permits are necessary for exhibiting, propagating, rearing, or holding Class I and Class II wildlife in captivity. Id. at §10- 9.353(1).

Class I wildlife include mammals (except bison) native to Missouri, Id. at §10- 9.230, while Class II wildlife includes mountain lions, wolves, and black bears and hybrids of each species. Id. at §10-9.240.

A permit issued to maintain such species can only be issued after the applicant provides satisfactory evidence that the "stock will be secured from a legal source other than the wild stock of this state; that the applicant will confine the wildlife in humane and sanitary facilities ... and that the applicant will prevent other wildlife of the state from becoming a part of the enterprise." Id. at §10-9.353(1).

None of the privileges offered by the permit "shall extend to permitting the act of hunting for such stock except that big game mammals may be shot for the purposes of herd management by the permit holder or his/her agents, but only by written authorization of the director." Id. at §10-9.353(6).

Return to canned hunting map.