BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) - The owner of an elk ranch in western North Dakota says she wants to see the way questions were worded in a survey about so-called "high fence" game farms.
The University of North Dakota's Bureau of Governmental Affairs said 600 people were surveyed over the telephone and more than 71 percent of those interviewed favor legislation that would prohibit shooting big game inside a fence.
Sen. Tim Mathern, D-Fargo, has proposed a bill that that would outlaw the practice.
The survey, sponsored by 10 wildlife groups from North Dakota, has a margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points, UND officials said.
Sally Dvirnak, who runs an elk preserve with her husband in Killdeer, said she does not believe its results are accurate.
ADVERTISEMENT
"We want to see the questions for ourselves," Dvirnak said Friday.
There were nine questions in the survey, including one on whether shooting in enclosures complied with fair chase principals. About 78 percent said it did not.
Mike Donahue, a lobbyist for the North Dakota Wildlife Federation, said the percentage of people who said they were opposed to big game farms is higher than he expected.
"We thought if we could get 65 percent, we would be doing good," he said. "This tells me that the general public is a believer in the ethics of fair chase in the hunt."
Dvirnak said barring the high fence game farms is a violation of property rights.
"We had a neighbor that sold some gravel off a mountain and took out part of the mountain," she said. "The mountain didn't look the same, and some people were upset about it, but that was his right to do that."
