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Why They're Called "Ranches"

To prospective clients, the operators of game ranches and hunting preserves claim that they are in the hunting business. But when they talk to each other and to the government agencies that regulate hunting, they tell a different story. Then they claim that their real business is ranching, and that they are simply adapting tried and true cattle raising techniques to an alternative form of livestock. It is no coincidence that Texas, America's premier cattle ranching state, was home to the first game ranch-which was created on a cattle ranch-and presently hosts more than 500 game ranches.

Canned hunt operators want to be ranchers when they're raising animals, but hunters when they're killing them. Their point is that state game agencies should not be able to regulate game ranches and hunting preserves because their animals are domestic livestock, and state agriculture departments should not be able to regulate them because agriculture agencies have no authority to regulate hunting. Forced to choose, however, most game ranchers and hunting preserve operators would rather be regulated by state agriculture departments, which are, on the whole, more sympathetic to canned hunts than state wildlife agencies. This strategy was first brought to public attention by Alan Green, who reports that, "In one state after another, the game farmers have pressed legislators to reclassify a growing list of animals as agricultural products, much like apples, alfalfa, and other cash crops-a change that allows them to raise, sell, and slaughter exotics without the hassle of fish-and-game department inspections or other government intrusions."

Canned hunt operators want to be ranchers when they're raising animals, but hunters when they're killing them.

Many state wildlife agencies oppose canned hunts for three primary reasons. First, since no hunting license is required to hunt exotic animals on private land, game ranches and hunting preserves—or at least those that specialize in exotics—potentially threaten a critical source of revenue for the agencies. Secondly, and more importantly, most state wildlife agency personnel have been educated in and are personally committed to the philosophy of "fair chase hunting." Although dedicated supporters of sport hunting, they generally believe canned hunts are unethical and should not be allowed. All too often, however, they are reluctant to voice their views publicly for fear that opposing any kind of "hunting" will be viewed as giving aid and support to the opponents of all hunting. Third, the agencies are concerned about disease transmission.

State agriculture departments, on the other hand, tend not to judge canned hunts in terms of a long tradition and an ethical code. They often view game ranches and hunting preserves as a way to help farmers and ranchers increase the profitability of their businesses. From their point of view, allowing the hunter to "only occasionally succeed," while the animals "generally avoid being taken" would be an inefficient way to try to turn a profit. After all, butchers in slaughterhouses don't "only occasionally succeed." In chicken processing plants, broiler chickens don't "generally avoid being taken." Canned hunt operators and many state agriculture departments treat hunting as an alternative form of animal slaughter, and hunting enclosures as outdoor slaughterhouses.

But thus far, due to their newness and their pretense at being "hunts" rather than slaughter, game ranches and hunting preserves have generally avoided the kind of regulation to which traditional livestock producers and slaughterhouses—at least in theory—are subject, such as health inspections. Most importantly, these outdoor slaughterhouses should be subject to the federal Humane Slaughter Act, which requires that an animal be rendered immediately unconscious and not allowed to suffer in the process of being slaughtered. Hunting, even under the conditions of a canned hunt, inevitably entails a significant wounding rate in which the animal suffers for a period of minutes or hours before being found and—in the euphemism of the hunting community—"dispatched." In bow hunting—which is popular on game ranches and hunting preserves because it heightens the illusion of an authentic hunt by a skilled outdoorsman—the typical cause of death is exsanguination. The animal almost never dies immediately, and up to 50% of animals who are struck by an arrow in free-range hunting are wounded and never retrieved.

This is clearly inconsistent with the federal standards established in the Humane Slaughter Act, and with similar standards enacted by many states. There is no way that slaughtering an animal under conditions that simulate hunting could comply with currently existing statutory requirements for the slaughter of livestock. And livestock is precisely what canned hunt operators have tried to turn these animals into.

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