I'm not doing it nor will I ever, but I have a question about the legality. Deer are considered a public resource/property of the state, correct? How come it's legal to high fence deer and essentially steal a public resource, when it's illegal to collect rainwater, divert a stream, net a chit ton of snapper and hold them until season, etc. It seems like high fencing deer is a legal version of theft of a public resource.

really???

This is an honest question. If it's stupid, please explain why. I just got to wondering about it and couldn't think of a way in my mind as to why it wouldn't be considered theft.

well the short answer is that it IS legal, so it is NOT theft.

now then, are you talking about a man fencing in his 1000 acres and preventing wild deer from leaving his property but not doing any breeding/selling of deer

or

a man fencing 10 acres for a breeding facility

???

I know it's legal. I'm asking why it's not considered theft. I'm referring to a man fencing his 1000 acres and preventing wild deer from leaving his property.

If the deer at that point aren't considered public property, he should be able to kill them whenever he wants, as they are his private property, just like a cow or sheep.

You see what I'm saying?

no I don't see what you are saying.....

Are you saying YOU or someone else can/should be able to TELL ME what I can do with my property as far as allowing me to fence it, or what kind of fence I can have?

Deer belong to the state and no matter where they are, they are covered by state laws/regulations. So the 1000 acre owner and the public land hunter both have to go by the same laws/rules. Deer ain't cows or sheep...but you already know that....

Let me try to sum it up in a better way....

Deer belong to the state and they are a public resource.

If deer belong to the state, and someone fences them in, there is only one person in the state that has a chance at harvesting them, and that is the landowner.

If there is only one person that has access to those deer and the ability to kill them, how are they still a public resource?

If they are still a public resource, why would that not be considered theft of a public resource?



It makes total sense in my head, but I may be going crazy on a Monday.

Will deer killed inside a high fence be required to be reported on GameCheck?

only if over bait.....;)

They are a public resource not available to the public, just like deer on private unfenced land and so don't go trying to infuse logic into this statement.

I know, deer on unfenced or low fenced land have the ability to leave. So, at what point does a high fence become a pen?

I thought they had to pay a per deer fee... If not THEY SHOULD. Just as you don't own a bird if it flys on to your land and you cage it you should not be able to own the deer. Teddy Roosevelt was against private preserves and it goes against the basic tenant of conservation in America. I honestly don't know what the fair balance is between landowner and public wildlife is. I personally think that there should be a surcharge for the wildlife that is trapped inside and once all the animals are reduced to a private resource that the high fence should be regulated by a different body of Government then the conservation dept.

Also, most folks I have talked to would rather not have the local deer in their high fence to start with as they want external / better genetics.

I understand exactly what you are saying. To me that land owner or any land owner including myself for that matter shouldn't be able to pen in deer that belong to you and I or the thousand of other hunters in Alabama. BTW I always thought it was illegal to in trap deer inside a high fence area unless you purchased those animals.

I don't like them, and there's was a time I let it bother me, but I got bigger stuff to worry about in life. I don't get too worked up about it these days.

The question to answer your question is this - when have rules ever applied to folks wealthy enough to operate these places? The majority of the owners are not common folk - we can all agree on that. They are not accustomed to playing by the same set of rules anyway. And most are active politically one way or the other.

How would you assess the population for payment? Hell we can't even figure out how many deer we kill a year. Yeah you can estimate off camera surveys and the like, but I would suspect people want a hard and fast number before they shelled money out.

The breeding business is big money, but I wish it wasn't so lucrative. While technically illegal to transport deer across state lines, I think we all know it happens. Chronic wasting disease scares the crap out of me, and it's coming. The argument could possibly be made that it would get here eventually anyway, but we are speeding up the process drastically with movement of wild cervids. Being as deer hunting funds most of our state conservation efforts, a decimated herd due to CWD has far reaching implications, not to mention the economical impacts on the state.

They're going to breed whether they're in 10 acres or 1000 acres.

Probably already here. Nothing can be done about it when it is. Already in half the country, the latest being in Arkansas. Won't be long.

During construction or after it is installed all deer inside the enclosure must be removed.

It is a good point. I have also considered that argument.

depends on what you are building. If you are enclosing property outside of a breeding/buying/selling operation there is no requirement to remove any deer. How in hell are you going to remove all the deer off of 1000, hell, 100 acres???

ya'll are, as usual, mixing enclosures(op question) and deer breeders. Different stuff...different rules.

From what I was told from G&F several years ago, if you put a fence around a property to hunt privately, the native deer can stay. If the fenced property will be used for commercial hunting, the property must be purged of all native deer.

We would have had to build the fence with the exception of a 100 yard opening and make man drives on the property to run the deer off the place. Then G&F would come in and place feed stations and cameras around the property to confirm that all deer were gone.

We never built the fence but this is what we were told we would have to do. That's been about 10 years ago so I guess some of the laws may have changed.