Lawmakers kill bill to ban game ranches

AUGUSTA – A bill to outlaw the operation of game ranches in Maine and make it a crime to hunt in them has been killed.

The bill, LD 300, would have banned privately owned preserves where non-native trophy animals are raised to be shot by fee-paying hunters. Several game ranches are in operation in Maine.

Supporters of the proposed ban said those businesses are inhumane and promote “canned hunts.”

But the Inland Fisheries and Wildlife Committee, before voting unanimously to reject the bill, agreed that banning commercial game-shooting areas would shut down an industry in Maine.

Sen. Bruce Bryant, co-chairman of the fish and game committee, said lawmakers took sufficient steps last session to regulate game-shooting areas. At the time, lawmakers decided to allow no new game ranches in the state, said Bryant, D-Dixfield.