Barbaric

A Corsican ram stands near a fence, frozen and quivering, struck a half-dozen times by an inexperienced bow hunter standing 20 feet away.

The image, on an undercover videotape released by the Humane Society of the United States in 2000, was taken at a fenced-in Pennsylvania hunting preserve. To critics of so-called "canned hunts," it is an example of the abuses inside some of these poorly regulated facilities.

A growing number of commercial hunting preserves operate, usually with a low public profile, in Vermont, Maine, New York and Pennsylvania. Their names evoke thrilling adventures in rugged terrain - Big Boar Lodge, Big Horn Hunting, Wild Hill Preserve. But some of them provide little more than a choreographed hunt, on as few as 10 acres enclosed by 8-foot fences.

Hunters, including some from Connecticut, where such preserves are banned, pick a potential trophy from a typical price list. Russian wild boar, $475. African sheep, $600. Indian axis deer, $1,000. Buffalo, $2,500.

The standard policy is "No kill, no pay," and customers get a guaranteed shot at their animal of choice. (source)