Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, February 27, 1995 TAG: 9502270083
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RON BROWN STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: BENNETTOWN LENGTH: Long
Ken Martin finds irony in the three deer skulls that hang outside a home adjacent to the entrance of the Boar Walla Hunting Lodge he runs.
``We're the ones who are accused of abusing animals,'' he says. ``We don't treat our animals like that.''
Martin and his captive-game hunting preserve near Covington have been in the center of a storm ever since it opened in the fall of 1993.
``You've got people who like to hunt," Martin says. "It is a blood sport, where an animal's life is taken. You've got others who oppose it. They are trying to impose their opinions on us.''
With the battle lines drawn, Pat Laudermilk, a member of the locally run Citizens, Farmers and Hunters Coalition, stands firmly on the other side.
``The reason that I got involved is that I don't consider it hunting,'' Laudermilk says. ``We are not just targeting Boar Walla; we want to close down all captive-game hunting preserves.''
The test of wills this year was played out in the General Assembly, where Laudermilk and other hunting-preserve opponents pushed legislators to impose a ban on the preserves. The assembly settled on banning future preserves and having the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services draft guidelines to regulate existing ones.
In addition to Boar Walla, there are two other game preserves in the state - one in Patrick County, the other in Cumberland County.
Boar Walla seems an unlikely location for political controversy. It is on a winding country road where hound dogs chase cars to break the boredom.
Martin, a rail-thin 38-year-old with a beard, is friendly enough and shows anger only when he talks about the preserve's opponents. He considers himself an animal lover and says he would fight against any preserve where the animals were treated inhumanely.
``I would be the first person at the gate,'' he says.
Martin gleaned his wildlife management philosophy from his days in the Army, where he worked as a game warden. Hunting has played a big part in his life. He has been a bow instructor and taught hunting ethics and safety courses to young people, he says.
Martin says he has been working with the state Agriculture Department for several years to make sure Boar Walla was run properly.
``The legislature is just reacting to what they're getting bugged about,'' he says.
Laudermilk likes bugging bureaucrats that she finds unresponsive. She launched into Boar Walla a year ago, with the objective of closing it.
She unravels state bureaucracy by using the Freedom of Information Act and persistently asks state and local officials how Boar Walla was allowed to get a foothold.
As part of that process, she has had to learn technical information about the problems of bringing non-native wildlife into the region. She has gained allies in the Humane Society of the United States, which funnels information to her by the folder-full.
She and a group of hard-core volunteers spread their version of the gospel. They have gathered several hundred signatures on a petition opposing Boar Walla.
To understand the controversy, one must understand exactly what Boar Walla does. The game preserve is stocked with a variety of animals, including Russian boar and exotic goats and rams. Hunters pay a fee to Boar Walla if they kill one of the animals. Martin wouldn't say how many hunters the preserve has had.
The Boar Walla brochure reads like a grocery list of animals for the taking. The prices to kill the animals range from $350 for goats to $2,500 for buffalo, although Martin says the preserve hasn't had any buffalo. Lodging is $50 a night, including meals.
``We hunt during all weather conditions, so plan to bring plenty of extra clothing,'' the brochure says. ``We hunt using tree stands, ground blinds or stalking. Your hunt will be a no-kill, no-pay hunt.''
The terrain around the hunting area is steep and filled with rocks and trees. The rams, less suspicious than the boars, readily avail themselves of the morning sun that beats down along the side of a ridge.
A fence runs the perimeter of Boar Walla's 170 acres to keep the animals from wandering onto adjacent land. Otherwise, they roam free.
``This is a hunting preserve,'' Martin says. ``This is not a killing preserve.''
Martin argues that stocking the land with boar and sheep is no different from state-sanctioned stocking of streams during trout season.
Laudermilk argues that the difference comes from the fact that the animals at Boar Walla are not native to Virginia. And if disease is introduced into the region by the animals, taxpayers will be paying for the cleanup long after Boar Walla and its investors are gone.
Beyond the sometimes-inflamed rhetoric of the debate, Martin and his partner, Betty Hawkins, have taken precautions to alleviate concerns about their handling of the animals.
They began talking about starting Boar Walla as early as 1991, when they worked together at Red Oak Ranch, a Highland County deer-hunting lodge owned by a West German dentist, Herbert Groetsch. Martin says Groetsch invested in Boar Walla so he would have somewhere else to visit and hunt.
Martin and Hall familiarized themselves with importation restrictions and immunizations required for wildlife not native to Virginia. They sought help from the state Agriculture Department, the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries and Virginia Tech, he says.
``We did a feasibility study, like any good business should do,'' he says.
Alleghany County seemed a receptive spot. The county code allowed hunting preserves on agricultural land, Martin said.
Actually, the county government, starving for business investment and jobs, jumped at the chance to get Boar Walla to locate there. The unemployment rate in Alleghany County usually is twice the state average.
Tammy Lawson, an assistant to the county administrator, was instrumental in helping Boar Walla obtain a $10,000, interest-free loan, funded by a rural revitalization grant from the U.S. Forest Service. That loan helped bolster an initial investment of more than $40,000 by Groetsch.
The use of Forest Service seed money and Groetsch's investment caught the eye of Boar Walla opponents, including Laudermilk.
On that point, Martin gets angry.
``This is the way business works,'' Martin says. ``Why in the hell are they guessing at where we are getting our start-up money? That's nobody's damn business.''
Martin says the money was repaid in full by November.
Laudermilk says using Forest Service grant money for a hunting preserve forces taxpayers to help pay for animals that end up getting killed by trophy hunters, who pay a fee to Boar Walla.
And she argues that Groetsch's interest is only fleeting.
``He doesn't give a damn about wildlife in this country,'' she says.
Beyond those monetary disputes, Martin says opponents have misrepresented the quality of the hunts he provides. He says he doesn't buy animals from zoos, and uses rules of engagement that bar a hunter from killing an animal sunning itself near a fence or grazing on supplemental food that is put out in the winter.
Boar Walla's clients are taken into the hunting area by guides who make sure they follow the rules. Some come because the preserve is safer than the national forest. Some are children on their first hunt.
The Boar Walla clients are not required to buy a license or observe a hunting season. The animals are considered to be property of the hunting lodge.
While hunting captive animals may be a matter of individual conscience, Laudermilk says hunting preserves that specialize in non-native animals present other problems. She worries that disease may be carried by wildlife or streams in and out of hunting preserves. She says that vaccinations used on domesticated livestock may have little or no preventive effect on non-native wildlife.
Martin says the animals he brings into Boar Walla have to meet the disease-free requirements imposed by the Agriculture Department and that the preserve is surrounded by a heavy-grade wire fence, which is inspected daily. The preserve also has two ponds for the animals.
A sediment pond has been built to pool water from Potts Creek and eliminate the possibility that disease is passed to adjacent land via water.
Laudermilk argues that the fence would have little effect slowing deer, which roam freely through the region and could carry disease.
On that point, Laudermilk's position is bolstered by the findings of an Aug. 26 study of shooting enclosures by Game and Inland Fisheries. The study found that shooting preserves stocked with non-native animals increase the likelihood of disease being introduced into the state's domestic livestock and wildlife herds.
Other states have found that some animals escape into the wild, where they don't have sufficient immunities built up to thwart disease, the study said.
It recommended against captive wildlife preserves.
``We don't look at this as hunting,'' says Bob Duncan, chief of the department's Wildlife Division. ``These animals are raised in pens. They are not taken from the wild.''
Martin says that opponents of hunting preserves are simply steeling themselves for a bigger battle.
``They're starting off with the smallest and most controversial form of hunting,'' he says. ``Once they eliminate us and gain momentum, their goal will be to eliminate all hunting. Their long-range goal is to eliminate all animal use, period.''
Not true, Laudermilk says.
``I come from a family of hunters,'' she says. ``My two grown sons still hunt. At Boar Walla, they hunt tamed animals contained by a fence. It's not a fair chase.''
``I've been to the fish hatchery during trout season,'' he says. ``There are 20 cars sitting there. They follow the trucks so they'll know where the fish are.''
Martin says the success rate at Boar Walla is lower than at Red Oak Ranch, which caters to hunters who track deer in their native environment.
The animals have learned to be wary when they hear entrance gates opening to allow the hunters in, Martin says.
No vehicles or dogs are allowed on the hunting grounds.
Keywords:
GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1995
Memo: ***CORRECTION***