Pen Hunting- Will this affect your hunting ?

[Rattus58]

A BILL

To amend title 18, United States Code, to prohibit certain interstate conduct relating to exotic animals.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

This Act may be cited as the `Sportsmanship in Hunting Act of 2007'.

SEC. 2. TRANSPORT OR POSSESSION OF EXOTIC ANIMALS FOR PURPOSES OF KILLING OR INJURING THEM.

(a) In General- Chapter 3 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following:

`Sec. 49. Exotic animals

`(a) Prohibition- Whoever, in or affecting interstate or foreign commerce, knowingly transfers, transports, or possesses a confined exotic animal, for the purposes of allowing the killing or injuring of that animal for entertainment or for the collection of a trophy, shall be fined under this title, imprisoned not more than 1 year, or both.

`(b) Definitions- In this section--

`(1) the term `confined exotic animal' means a mammal of a species not indigenous to the United States, that has been held in captivity--

`(A) the majority of the animal's life; or

`(B) a period of 1 year; and

`(2) the term `captivity' does not include any period during which an animal lives as it would in the wild--

`(A) surviving primarily by foraging for naturally occurring food;

`(B) roaming at will over an open area of not less than 1,000 acres; and

`(C) having the opportunity to avoid hunters.'.

(b) Conforming Amendment- The table of sections at the beginning of chapter 3 of title 18, United States Code, is amended by adding at the end the following new item:

`49. Exotic animals.'.

Will this affect your hunting this year or ever?

Aloha... :cool:

[wolfspotter]

Pen or canned hunting is just plain wrong and not real hunting at all. :-?

[Underclocked]

I still want my "no lawyers in Congress" amendment.

Otherwise I'm pretty much in agreement with wolfspotter on this one. The words hunt or hunting should not be allowed with reference to such operations - it should be called slaughter.

[Rattus58]

I'm with them two as well.... gallery hunting to me is an abhorrent practice.

Aloha... :cool:

[lastmanout]

Like most legal drafts, this looks well intentioned and even noble. HOWEVER, we are foolish to assume that it will not be bastardized beyond it original intent to limit all hunting rights. There is a war going on for the hearts and minds of the public, and sad to say, the right to own firearms and hunt are losing support. Enjoy these days, friends.

[725]

I agree with lastmanout. No matter what the little encroachments are (and canned hunts aren't hunts), they do add up to a crushing weight we, as a group, won't be able to hold for very long. These canned hunts are an ugly abuse that the anti's love to show off as another example of how barbaric we gun guys are. I have a low regard for the blowhard macho types that seem to gravitate toward duck-in-a-barrel type operations. I do, however, have a steadfast and unwavering belief in property rights. Until the killing of penned animals approaches cruelity, I stand aside from the arguement. I raise pheseants for food. I kill them. They don't like it. Actually, I don't like it either --- but I have this outstanding soup receipe....................
I grew up before that advent of political correctness. Then people were either polite or rude. Rude people were ignored, scorned, or diminished by the overall population in ways that brought most of them back into polite society. Polite people were rewarded. Propriety had it's enforcement mechanism then as opposed to today's political correctness reliance on more and more legislation. Freedom was freedom and had it's own constraints. Today it is a word on page 531 in my Funk & Wagnalls. I've got no answers, just an attitude.

[MT Gianni]

I know of several bird hunting clubs that it might effect. A friend in Utah used to shoot pheasants from Oct. to Mar. That were raised in an enclosure big enough to let them fly in. Birds were purchased and released in a 640 acre field and your dog worked to find them and you shot them. It might close operations such as this but if it hits the canned deer and elk shoots, I can't call them hunts, I'm all for it. Gianni

[longhorn]

First of all, this certainly won't affect deer or elk--they're native species. Second of all, somebody has no idea how big 1000 acres is if you're wandering around on it! I abhor canned hunts too, but this looks like either a muddled attempt at prohibition of same, or a sneaky step toward something else.

[Rattus58]

The anti's never give up. Any gain is a loss for hunting. There is something to give an inch, lose a mile, so vigilance is necessary... and as Churchill sayed...

Never give in--never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honour and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.

Aloha... :cool:

[hunter64]

I couple of years ago I was flipping channels early on a Sunday morning and stopped on some hunting show that caught my attention just before it went to commercial break. So they come back from break and here is a father (host) and son going deer hunting and they show them in the truck early in the morning driving out to the hunting area. It kind of gave me the warm and fuzzy's about me and the boy on his first trip so I watched on in anticipation of the hunt. Well they park in a parking lot on the side of what looked like a barn and got out and made no effort to try and be quite and after they get there stuff out of the truck, just slammed the doors. I thought "Oh brother" what idiots. So the camera guy is following the father and son down a wooded path and into a "blind" and now they are being quite and whispering. The camera pans around in the "blind" and there is a sink with a fridge beside it and on the other side of the shack is a bathroom. I thought what the heck is this. So the Father is sitting beside his boy and the young lad has his barrel out this slot in the front of the shack resting on some sandbags just like at the range. The father "host" turns to the camera and says that there is a nice 6 point that frequents these parts and we should see him anytime now around 7am at first feeding. Well sure enough out comes this buck and almost to the second it is 7am by the clock on the wall. The dad says wait till he stops at the feed stand, I said to myself "feed stand" what the heck. So the deer goes waddling up to the feed stand and starts to eat and the dad says OK shoot. Well the kid is 12 years old and has a 40 yard shot and easily makes the shot. They are both high fiving each other and host states what a great shot and a great hunt that was for the boys first buck. I couldn't stop laughing it was so funny and then I thought I wonder how many other idiots are like this out there and I hoped that some of the anti-hunting crowd wasn't watching. Well I guess they must have been watching to come up with a bill like the one proposed. I just wish I could remember the name of the show so I could send I nice letter to them, even thought of spoofing them and showing me and my son at my uncles when we slaughter bulls, going on the hunt and getting his first bull in the corral. I think it was Michigan Outdoors or something like that.

[waksupi]

Hunter, I believe those shows are the worst anti-hunting programs that could be put into the hands of PETA and such trash. If they are going to have hunting shows, do real hunts. Not sitting in a blind with feeders.

[Rattus58]

Totally concur.... :)