A sponsoring committee is trying again to outlaw the practice of "high-fence hunting" in North Dakota, submitting paperwork with the secretary of state on Monday for a potential 2010 ballot measure.

North Dakota Hunters for Fair Chase is sponsoring the petition, which would outlaw the practice of charging a fee to hunt animals in enclosed, inescapable preserves.

The group's co-chairman, Roger Kaseman, said they had enough signatures to put a similar measure on the 2008 general election ballot, but failed because of technical errors.

Now, Kaseman said he thinks there is still enough support in North Dakota to outlaw the practice that he said goes against fair chase hunting principles.

"They pen deer and elk in an escape-proof pasture and then they're bringing in people to shoot them and they're calling that hunting," Kaseman said. "It's commercialization of wildlife and we believe in the long run it's going to injure hunting as we know it."

Kaseman said there are about a dozen hunting preserves in North Dakota, but Shawn Schafer, the executive director of the North Dakota Deer Rancher Association, said there are six.

Schafer, who opposes the ban, said the hunting preserves in North Dakota are legitimate businesses that help promote hunting.

"We feel it's a violation of our private property rights," Schafer said of the potential ballot measure. "The hunting that we do is legal and ethical."

Schafer headed the North Dakota Citizens for Property Rights last year during the signature drive for the high-fence hunting ban. He said he is likely to revive the organization.

Secretary of State Al Jaeger will review the high-fence ban petition language over the next week. The earliest he can decide to approve it for circulation is Aug. 17.

The sponsoring committee is required to collect 12,844 signatures by Aug. 4, 2010 to place it on next year's general election ballot.

A similar high-fence hunting ban was approved by Montana voters in 2000. During the 2007 legislative session, North Dakota lawmakers overwhelmingly voted down a bill that would have outlawed the practice.

"When I found out this was going on back in 2005, I was appalled as a sportsman and a hunter that you put animals behind a fence that have no chance for escape and you shoot them," said Gary Masching, a co-chairman of the sponsoring committee. "It's really disgusting."

Wayne Laaveg, who owns an elk farm in Park River and sells some of his livestock to a nearby hunting preserve in Edinburg, said he was discouraged to hear there may be another signature drive to outlaw high-fence hunting.

"It's a humane way of harvesting animals," Laaveg said. "It's more humane than the lottery season. When you go to a hunting preserve, you shoot an animal you're going to get that animal."

The ballot language is: "A person is guilty of a class A misdemeanor if the person obtains fees or other remuneration from another person for the killing or attempted killing of privately-owned big game species or exotic mammals confined in or released from any man-made enclosure designed to prevent escape. This section does not apply to the actions of a government employee or agent to control an animal population, to prevent or control diseases, or when government action is otherwise required or authorized by law."

(Reach reporter Brian Duggan at 223-8482 or at brian.duggan@bismarcktribune.com.)