I operate an elk ranch in western North Dakota where we offer hunting that follows the rules set forth by the North Dakota Board of Animal Health. The animal rights groups behind the fair chase push have no right to tell someone else how to hunt as long as what they do is legal. A good share of the hunters that hunt my ranch could not do an elk hunt in the mountains for health and age reasons.

If people asked my hunters how many of them knew where the fence was when they shot their elk, they would find out that almost all of them did not feel fenced in.

How someone hunts in no one else's business, as long as they follow the laws. Some hunters may not support our kind of hunts or care to partake in them but feel that we have the right to do what we want with our land as long as what we do is legal and healthy.

Who wants to tell an 11-year-old boy with leukemia who wants his "hunt of a lifetime" on our ranch that he cannot do it? I have a soldier who had his left arm blown off in Iraq wanting to come and hunt elk on a sponsored hunt this fall. I sure don't want to be the one to tell him to stay home. Again my hunts are not for everyone, but they fill the bill for some.

And my hunts keep land open for others. Hunting inside my fence means more deer and elk hunters aren't overwhelming the country, and landowners can leave land open to hunting. Everyone can have a chance to take part in the hunting tradition.

Finally, I'd like to note that the fair chase spokesperson, Roger Kaseman, has had numerous addresses in California. I don't know about you, but I don't want a Californian who clearly identifies with radical animal rights groups dictating what we do in North Dakota.