Game Ranching: A New Way to Separate City Slickers from Their Money

	©Kevin Abbott/Stock.xchng
	Exotic and native wildlife are captive on game ranches.

According to Safari Club International, an organization dedicated to big game trophy hunting, the first game ranch in the United States was the Y.O. Ranch in Mountain Home, Texas, two hours southwest of San Antonio.

Founded in 1880 as a longhorn cattle ranch, the Y.O. introduced Indian blackbuck antelopes in 1953. When the blackbucks thrived, the Y.O. went into the business of exotic hunts, and ranch managers began adding other species of exotic deer including axis, sika, and fallow.

Today, the Y.O. advertises "North America's largest collection of exotic wild animals—zebras, giraffes, ostriches, sika, oryx, aoudad and eland—over 50 different species. The Y.O. is a hunting mecca for photographers, native game hunters and exotic game hunters from everywhere."

By the 1960s, inspired by the success of the Y.O. Ranch, hunting preserves and game ranches had begun to appear first in the Texas hill country and then throughout the nation. But their current burst of popularity dates only from the 1980s, when they began filling a new market niche created by the paradox of fewer hunters spending more money on their sport.

Fewer Hunters, More Spending

From the 1950s through 1975, the number of hunters in America had held steady at around 10% of the population age 12 and above. But starting in 1975, a decline set in that continues to the present. According to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in 2001, the latest year for which statistics are available, only 6% of Americans sixteen and older hunted. Researchers for the hunting industry have identified several reasons for this decline, including the fact that a majority of Americans now oppose sport hunting. But only two of these factors are important in understanding the growing popularity of captive hunts.

First, since World War II, America has become an urban and suburban nation. More people live in cities and suburbs, while development pushes wildlife habitat farther and farther away from them. Hunting has become more time consuming and less convenient than other forms of recreation like golf or tennis.

Second, with two-career families now the norm rather than the exception, and household and child-rearing responsibilities typically shared by two working parents, hunting forays have to be fitted into a high-pressure schedule of work, parenting, and household chores. To further complicate things, in many states—including some in which hunting has long been popular, such as Texas and Maine—most land is privately owned and finding a place to hunt can be daunting due the decreased accessibility to land. Hunting trips now have to be planned, scheduled, organized—and paid for.

Operators of game ranches and hunting preserves are well aware of those limitations. "If you don't have the ten days to two weeks normally needed to hunt for trophies with someone else," say the operators of Cedar Ridge Elk Ranch in North Dakota, "then Cedar Ridge Elk Ranch is the place for you."

The same people whose metropolitan lifestyle is incompatible with traditional hunting typically have significant disposable income to spend on recreation. So while the number of hunters is declining, the amount of money they spend is going up—dramatically. In 1991, hunters spent $14 billion on their sport, but by 2001 that figure had risen to $20.6 billion, an increase of 33% while the number of hunters was dropping by 17%. The recipients of the $21 billion spent each year by hunters include the manufacturers, distributors and retailers of hunting products ranging from firearms and ammunition to archery equipment to outdoor clothing, camping gear and related accessories. They also include hunting lodges, guides, game ranches and hunting preserves.

Three Kinds of Ranches

There are three types of game ranches or hunting preserves operating in the United States. First, there are some that are simply large tracts of privately owned land, hundreds or even thousands of acres, which are not fenced and not stocked. No feeding stations are maintained and no crops are planted in small patches—known as "feeding plots" or "food plots"—for the purpose of attracting game. The only difference between these "ranches" and hunting on public land is that the hunter has to pay for the privilege.

Second, there are game ranches or hunting preserves that specialize in native species, usually whitetailed deer or elk. These establishments "manage" the herd to produce a high proportion of "trophy" animals by techniques adapted from the cattle industry, such as keeping the herd inside a game-proof fence to prevent dilution of the gene pool, providing high-protein food supplements, prohibiting the hunting of young bucks until their antlers reach trophy size, and culling "inferior" animals from the herd. Some game ranches buy and import stock from breeders, live animal dealers, and other ranches.

For example, Forest of Antlers Outfitters in Minnesota promises "a unique hunting experience, specializing in trophy bucks..." while the Triple Three Ranch in Wyoming advertises that they "control the harvest and manage the herd for large trophy heads." In a letter to a Fund for Animals investigator posing as a prospective client, Triple Three owner Craig Smith wrote, "We have good trophies all through the season. Our Mule deer have averaged 24-inch spread 4x4 and five years old for the last six years. I really don't think you can do better as far as mule deer go.... Whitetail are increasing in numbers with an 18-inch spread average."

Third, there are game ranches and hunting preserves that deal in exotic animals, ranging all the way from African lions to Indian axis deer. Exotic species are either bred on-site or bought from breeders or dealers, and the hunting of exotics takes place in a fenced enclosure that may range from the size of a large pen to several hundred acres.

The Zoo Connection

The traffic in exotic animals exists because large municipal zoos depend on baby animals to attract paying customers. When these babies grow up, they must be disposed of to make room for the new crop of babies who will draw crowds of customers. Because the public would not tolerate animals simply being killed by zoos, they are sold to dealers, who in turn often sell them to research laboratories, roadside petting zoos, and captive hunts. In this way, the zoos can claim to have no responsibility for their ultimate fate. Exotic animals bought as "pets" and later discarded also add to the supply for captive hunts.

This pivotal role of municipal zoos in the inhumane commerce in wildlife, including wildlife destined to end up at captive hunts, has been extensively documented by investigative journalist Alan Green in his groundbreaking expos Animal Underworld. Green notes that, "On a single day," while he was doing his research, American Zoological Association zoos "were looking to rid themselves of six hundred mammals, nearly four hundred reptiles, thousands of fish, hundreds of birds, and a variety of invertebrates." Green characterizes the fate of the baby animals who outgrow their public appeal this way:

...the expendable two-year olds—along with the aged, out-of-vogue, and reproductively spent—become sacrificial lambs that are cast off, resold, and laundered on paper until they become officially 'lost to follow-up.' Animals that are supposedly part of grand conservation schemes are recast as just more fodder for the dealers, brokers, auction houses, and sanctuaries that exploit them for profit, subject them to abuse, relegate them to unsuitable environments, or even worse, use them to breed new generations of product for their mercenary commerce.

Green concludes by asking, "Are zoo animals nothing but crowd-luring props, to be blindly disposed of when they're no longer useful? Society castigates those who treat their mutts in such fashion."

To read "Canned Hunts—Unfair at Any Price" in its entirety, download the PDF.

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