Dear Representative xx,
The Indiana Bowhunter Association (IBA) has a membership of over 500 individual voting members. The IBA is committed to protecting hunting pursuits in Indiana for the thousands of bowhunters that take to the field every year. The IBA wishes to convey its position statement around Senate Bill 52 which means to decriminalize wildlife violations.
Are you aware that Indiana is a destination high in the minds of deer hunters? The second highest scoring fair chase antlered whitetail deer to ever be taken came from Indiana. This has made Indiana a mecca for deer hunters.
Over the years, the Indiana Fish and Wildlife Division of Natural Resource, in combined efforts with multiple conservation groups, has diligently worked to create a healthy deer herd in Indiana. This deer herd, through proper management, contains mature deer that grow substantially large antlers, and provide for a renewable herd. In conjunction with the wildlife division, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources Law Enforcement Division works tirelessly to enforce the laws and promote ethical hunting behavior in the field, supporting the great herd of whitetail deer that Indiana has grown.
Senate Bill 52 simply means to open the doors to unethical and unlawful hunting practices. This will be detrimental to the work that the wildlife biologist, the conservation groups, and the conservation officers have strived to maintain over the years.
Senate Bill 52 propagates the illegal taking of wildlife (deer and turkey not withstanding) with little to no recourse for those individuals engaged in the activities.
Senate Bill 52 does not create an incentive for individuals to purchase proper licenses. It is through the purchase of these licenses that the wildlife biologists and conservation officers are paid. It is through the purchase of these licenses that the continued natural resources in Indiana are assured through conservation efforts. Today’s hunting in Indiana creates over $400 million dollars in economic activity every year.
Senate Bill 52 promotes illegal and unethical behavior. As a sporting group representing hundreds of hunters that deem fair chase as the only method of viable ethical hunting, Senate Bill 52 is a slap in the face.
Won’t you please join the Indiana Bowhunter Association, along with a myriad of other local and state organizations, in the continuing efforts to grow Indiana’s wildlife and promote ethical fair chase hunting in Indiana? Please let it be known that you will not pass Senate Bill 52, or any other bill that is detrimental to the legal activity of hunting that Indiana sportsmen and women have worked hard to instill.
Respectfully,
Herb Higgins (IBA Treasurer) writing on behalf of the Indiana Bowhunter Association Executive Board
The last I heard, there was talk of reincorporating the canned hunting legislation into SB 52. That would be a fiasco.
