According to an article on the KX News site, a petition is going around the state to try to ban the hunting of big game animals like deer and elk on private lands where they are raised.  Another group of activists, including one Shawn Schafer, has banded together as a group called Citizens to Protect North Dakota Property Rights. 

From the article:

Schafer says it should be up to each individual land owner to use their property as they see fit.

He says it should be up to each hunter to choose how they hunt based on state and federal law and their preferences.

(Shawn Schafer/ Citizens to Preserve ND Property Rights) “part of the reason for raising our animals is they are livestock, they are personally owned private property and we can take land out there that is marginal that is not the best crop land in the world and we can actually turn a very good profit on it.”

The group circulating petitions to ban hunting big game animals on private land where they are raised say this practice is unethical.

My response to that last sentence is to ask which is more unethical: hunting big game on familiar ground or taking away property rights? 

I side with Schafer on this one.  Besides setting a dangerous precedent, this type of ban could have some serious unintended consequences like disease in deer because of high populations or the slowing of hunting as part of the tourism industry (North Dakota’s second largest industry) because it would affect outfitters.

The petition apparently needs 13,000 signatures to be an initiated measure on the November ballot.  I don’t know what kind of a chance this petition stands, but I have the feeling that even if it doesn’t get on the ballot this time around, some people will keep pushing for it.  This is an issue to watch.