While hunting behind high fences is accepted and widely practiced in the US for white-tailed deer and exotics, it has not yet been widely accepted for a species such as desert sheep. A complicating factor is the size of some of the desert-sheep enclosures being used. Some are said to be as small as 400 acres.
There are also some allegations swirling about foul play behind some high fences. That is probably not surprising given the fact that desert sheep hunting, at roughly $60,000 a clip, is one of the most expensive single-species hunts in the world. It seems that some landowners have trapped 10-, 11- and 12-year-old rams from the wild and put them behind high fences for the ostensible purpose of breeding. The allegations are that the high fence is not supporting a breeding program but rather a put-and-take sheep hunting operation.
Some believe that high-fence operations may be the saviors of desert sheep in some areas because they protect the animals from poaching. Others say high-fence hunting is degrading the very essence of desert sheep hunting. It is an issue worthy........(continued)
