MPR’s Gary Eichten interviews nature filmmaker about the growing industry of shooting preserves, in which hunting enthusiasts can shoot more fowl. These preserves are mostly made up of private farmland.
Shooting preserves specifically raise game birds in order to provide plentiful targets. The business is spurred on by the increasing loss of wildlands in the state.
SPEAKER 1: One day, my brother came in from hunting, and I asked him, so how many pheasants did you get? And he said, 20. And I said, 20? The legal limit is two. How can you shoot 20?
He said, oh, well, I went to a shooting preserve. I thought, what is a shooting preserve? And that kind of started out the idea for the film.
SPEAKER 2: So just more curiosity to find out what the whole industry was about, or did you go at it with a point of view initially?
SPEAKER 1: Well, initially it was a point of view that this sounds like a very bizarre thing, breeding animals for hunting. But when I started to get into it, I realized what's happening is that farmers are starting to do it as a means of survival, economic means of survival. A lot of farmers are starting to turn their land into shooting preserves and breed animals for hunting.
SPEAKER 2: But doesn't it still seem kind of weird?
SPEAKER 1: Yeah, it does. It does. I guess I became interested in it, too, because it's a cultural phenomenon, a rural cultural phenomenon. And I realized that hunting has changed, and maybe nobody really has recognized that.
SPEAKER 2: How so?
SPEAKER 1: Well, with the shooting preserves, what's happened with the expansion of suburbia and urban areas is that rural lands have kind of disappeared and wild lands have disappeared altogether. And as a result, people who hunt no longer can just walk out into the wild and go hunting. That just simply doesn't exist anymore.
SPEAKER 2: One of the things about hunting that's always pointed out is the sporting experience of it, to actually go out and find the game and where the game has a better-than-average chance of getting away and the whole experience of tracking down the game. And while these birds aren't just sitting there, waiting to be shot, it does seem like it takes away from that sporting aspect of it substantially. Does it not?
SPEAKER 1: Yeah. Yeah, I think it does. And a lot of hunters also think that it takes away from the sport. And there are hunters that refuse to go to shooting preserves, although I think they're becoming more and more acceptable because of the depletion of wild game, like pheasants and ducks, in rural areas.
SPEAKER 2: What's your sense, Bill? Is this good or bad? Given the fact that it helps some farmers stay in business. It gives some hunters access to hunting, that they have land that they can actually go to. And yet there is this kind of grotesque nature to the whole industry. Or seems to be.
SPEAKER 1: Yeah. I don't know if I can answer that. I don't know if I can come up with a value, a decision, a moral decision, whether it's good or bad. It is bizarre in a lot of ways, but at the same time, I'm not willing to say to farmers that are surviving this way, listen, you can't do this. You can't breed these animals for hunting in order to pay your mortgage and feed your children.
So I guess that's kind of the point of view of the film takes. It kind of raises more questions than it really answers. And I don't think there'll be a final decision on that for a while.
Views and opinions expressed in the content do not represent the opinions of APMG. APMG is not responsible for objectionable content and language represented on the site. Please use the "Contact Us" button if you'd like to report a piece of content. Thank you.
Transcriptions provided are machine generated, and while APMG makes the best effort for accuracy, mistakes will happen. Please excuse these errors and use the "Contact Us" button if you'd like to report an error. Thank you.