ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, February 8, 1996 TAG: 9602080060
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-5 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: RICHMOND
SOURCE: Associated Press
Preserves where hunters can shoot goats, sheep, hogs and other animals reared in captivity would have to shut down within five years under a bill a House of Delegates committee endorsed Wednesday.
``It's organized slaughter,'' bill sponsor George Grayson, D-Williamsburg, said of the enclosed hunting preserves. ``This is canned hunting.''
The bill would force the businesses to either shut down or shift to regular game hunts by Jan. 1, 2001.
The Boar Walla preserve near Covington has been at the forefront of the controversy. Hunters and animal-rights advocates, groups that usually are pitted against each other, have united to protest Boar Walla.
Boar Walla owners did not return a phone call Wednesday afternoon.
Tony Meeks, owner of the Bull Mountain Hunting Preserve in Patrick County, said he opposes the bill but had no further comment. There was no telephone listing for a third preserve, Willis River Hunting Adventures in Cumberland County.
The state last year passed a law allowing only three existing captive-animal preserves to operate in Virginia.
Animal-rights advocates argue that the animals are tame, unwary targets who are treated inhumanely before and after the kill. Some hunters say captive-animal hunting is unsportsmanlike and doesn't give the animal an opportunity for a fair chase. Hunters at the preserves do not need a license.
``The animals that they use are hogs, goats and sheeps that are bred in captivity. They are not wildlife and they are not game species,'' said Bob Duncan, director of the wildlife division of the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries. Game animals in Virginia include deer, bear, turkeys and quail.
Game and Inland Fisheries recommended that the preserves be closed after an agency study found that shooting preserves stocked with non-native animals increase the likelihood of disease being introduced into the state's domestic livestock and wildlife herds.
Grayson originally wanted to ban the preserves by 1998, but a compromise was reached with members of the Agriculture, Conservation and Natural Resources Committee who argued that the businesses should be given more time to close or shift their focus.
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1996by CNB