N.D. voters reject measure to ban big game shooting preserves

[Ben Sobieck]

Source: Grand Forks Herald

North Dakota voters Tuesday defeated a measure that would have banned shooting elk and deer inside high-fence enclosures.

With 434 of 505 precincts reporting, Initiated Measure No. 2 trailed by a margin of 111,639 to 86,728, or 56.28 percent to 43.72 percent.

Casting a “yes” vote meant support of the ban; a “no” vote, opposition to the measure.

Measure 2 pitted proponents of “fair-chase hunting,” as advocated by conservationists such as Aldo Leopold and Theodore Roosevelt, against livestock producers, shooting preserve operators and landowners who said a ban would violate their property rights.

North Dakota has about a dozen big game shooting preserves, which are licensed by the state agriculture department.

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