Zoeller appeals captive-deer case to Supreme Court

Indiana's attorney general has appealed to the state's top court a case that removed the authority of wildlife officials to regulate captive-deer hunting.

But even as he filed a legal challenge Wednesday that argues the Department of Natural Resources had legal authority to ban high-fence hunting, Attorney General Greg Zoeller put pressure on lawmakers to end a legislative impasse.

"What would be preferable is a legislative solution — a bill reflecting the will of the people's elected representatives — rather than a court-mandated solution," Zoeller said Wednesday in a statement.

House Bill 1453, which would formally legalize high-fence hunting, has already passed the Indiana House. But it faces an uncertain future in the second half of Indiana's legislative session. Last year, a similar bill failed in the Senate by just one vote.

The Senate's top Republican, President Pro Tempore David Long, has likened high-fence hunting to dog fighting and has stopped HB 1453 from moving forward. Long said last week that he would allow the bill to advance only if he thought it could be reworked to ensure ethical hunting practices and adequate protection against the facilities spreading disease.

Absent a bill passing, Zoeller said that he had no choice but to appeal the case Wednesday, the deadline to challenge an appellate court ruling.

In early February, an Indiana Court of Appeals panel ruled 2-1 that state wildlife officers overstepped their authority a decade ago when they tried to ban the dozen or so high-fence hunting preserves in the state.

The 2005 ban on high-fence hunting ranches came after state and federal wildlife officers raided a Peru, Ind., hunting preserve. They alleged that wealthy clients were paying tens of thousands of dollars to shoot deer with massive antlers in enclosures so small that officials called them "killing pens."

The owner of the preserve, Russ Bellar, was sentenced to nine months in federal prison. He remains a prominent player in the deer-breeding industry. There are nearly 400 deer farms in Indiana whose primary market is in breeding massive-antlered trophy deer.

The Bellar case prompted the DNR to shut down the remaining preserves, but the owners sued, challenging the ban.

In 2013, a Harrison County judge ruled that the DNR had no authority over captive-deer hunting because the animals on the preserves were privately owned livestock.

But the status of the animals, which the DNR classifies as wildlife, remained unclear.

Less than a year before the Harrison County ruling, an Owen County judge tossed out another case challenging the DNR's authority.

Meanwhile, four preserves are operating in Indiana without DNR oversight. The bill that passed the House would allow only hunting preserves that operated prior to the DNR's ban.

Call Star reporter Ryan Sabalow at (317) 444-6179. Follow him on Twitter: @RyanSabalow.