Responsible hunters should join the opposition to canned hunts. Later today the board of directors of the Oregon Hunters Association, the state's largest hunters group, will meet to take a position on the proposed ban. The OHA and its 6,000 members should strongly support the prohibition considered by the Fish and Wildlife Commission. The proposal would make it unlawful to hunt or kill, or attempt to hunt or kill, exotic mammals or game mammals held or obtained by private parties. But it would make it clear that hunting animals in fenced enclosures is unacceptable in Oregon.
Critics protest that the state has no business regulating hunting activities on private land.
If you take that argument to its logical conclusion, private landowners would be able to kill any and every animal that set foot on their land. Couch's hunting operation isn't tucked in a small corral, but covers some 2,200 acres surrounded by 16 miles of 8-foot fencing. We'll concede that canned hunts in large fenced areas are less offensive than those carried out in corrals, but hunting wildlife in cages or enclosures of any size is antithetical to the sport of hunting. The Fish and Wildlife Commission, which is responsible for setting hunting seasons and other rules to protect wildlife, seems reluctant to prohibit canned hunts. Members voted 4-3 at a recent meeting to put off a decision until their Friday meeting.