First Adopted March 12, 2014 - Revised: 8/19/2014 - Reviewed 7/11/2014

Situational Overview

Conservation and preservation are two different philosophies. Since the early 20th century, conservation has meant the wise and prudent use of natural resources without waste. Preservation means protection from use.

First Adopted December 1, 2012 - Updated September 27, 2016

Situational Overview

As the oldest conservation organization in North America, the Boone and Crockett Club is often asked to comment on gun control issues and Second Amendment rights because of the close relationship between gun ownership, hunting, and wildlife conservation.

Genetic manipulation (also known as genetic enhancement or genetic engineering) is being used to produce big game specimens, especially deer and elk, with unnatural and abnormally large antlers and other physical characteristics. Human-selected, genetically-manipulated, game animals comprise an industry in which breeders produce such animals and their semen for game farms and shooting…

First Adopted July 27, 2011 - Updated February 5, 2013

Situational Overview

The subject of animal welfare and the proliferation of organizations focused on the subject have prompted much concern and debate within the hunter-conservation community and others.

First Adopted July 27, 2011 - Updated September 27, 2011

The Boone and Crockett Club, the oldest hunter-conservationist organization in North America, has released a comprehensive essay on fair chase, the first and longest standing honor code in North American hunting.

Adopted December 1, 2021

Breeders of captive, native North American cervids, primarily white-tailed deer and elk, raise these animals to sell as breeding stock, as trophy animals for fee-based shooting operations, or to produce meat, semen, velvet, and other saleable parts. The number of farms, ranches and other facilities engaged in this business has been growing rapidly over the past decade, and breeding…

A canned shoot is the practice of pursuing and killing any big game animal kept in or released from captivity to be killed in an escape-proof, fenced, put-and-take shooting operation, often called a “hunting preserve” by this industry. In canned shoots, the game lacks the equivalent chance to escape afforded free-ranging animals, virtually assuring the shooter a kill.