Canned Shoot Statement

The Boone and Crockett Club’s Board of Directors and its membership have unanimously adopted and approved a position statement on “Canned Shoots” because of the growing concern among hunters and the increased public interest in the practice of “canned hunts.” Read our position.

ETHICAL HUNTING VERSUS UNETHICAL SHOOTING AND OTHER PRACTICES

The Boone and Crockett Club has been a highly respected conservation leader and proponent of ethical Fair Chase hunting of North American big game since 1887. Read our press release.

ETHICAL FAIR CHASE HUNTING

The Boone and Crockett Club, in its Fair Chase statement, advocates any hunting that is “the ethical, sportsmanlike and lawful pursuit and taking of any free-ranging wild game animal in a manner that does not give the hunter an improper or unfair advantage over the game animals.”

UNETHICAL “CANNED” SHOOTING (IMPROPERLY REFERRED TO AS “CANNED” HUNTING.)

The Boone and Crockett Club condemns the pursuit and killing of any big game animal kept in or released from captivity to be killed in an artificial or bogus “hunting” situation where the game lacks the equivalent chance to escape afforded free-ranging animals, virtually assuring the shooter a certain or unrealistically favorable chance of a kill.

GENETIC MANIPULATION OF GAME ANIMALS

The Boone and Crockett Club condemns artificial and unnatural enhancement of a big game species’ genetic characteristics. Unacceptable practices for genetic enhancement include, but are not limited to, artificial insemination, controlled or unnatural breeding programs, cloning, and translocation of breeding stock for canned shooting purposes. Read our position.

PUBLIC PERCEPTION

The Boone and Crockett Club is greatly concerned that the non-hunting public may confuse ethical, fair chase hunting with canned shoots, genetic manipulations and other related practices, which the Club condemns. Read our press release.

Prepared for and Adopted by the Board of Directors - June 4, 2005