Hi Roy,
I guess it must be really hot out there, to judge from your comments. you sound irritable and argumentative. you criticize other's opinions but do not give your view on the subject you raised.
I did not add to my list of "fair chase" rules that one must not bait animals in any manner, simply because we are discussing hunting, not plain shooting of animals.
A comment has been made about hunting within fenced areas and calling it "penned hunting". my answer is that to understand it you need to come to Africa.
As result of agricultural and urban development there are no significant quantities of animals that roam free to start with, and hunting (or any other shooting) on Government land will get you in jail for poaching.
Unfortunately there are places that do "canned hunting", particularly of Lions. (BTW, the clients who come to shoot at this places are all from places out of Africa...) the hunting and conservation bodies are doing our best to close these operations down through court action. I, and many otheres here support this financially, so I also put my money where my mouth is. we would probably be more succesfful if there were less wealthy people that would stoop down to shooting these lions just so that they can later lie to their friends and brag about it (sorry about the rant, but I feel very strongly about this issue).
The majority of game farms are well over 10000 Hectares, some are MUCH bigger (I hunt regularly in one that is over 27000 Hectares), and yes, they are fenced. Fencing of farms help keep the animals in, poachers out and in instances of outbreak of desease (right now Namibia is going through a bout of RIFT VALLEY FEVER) it makes it possible to isolate affected game.
While this may not sound as romantic as the stories from 150 years ago, this is Africa today, and when you pitch your skills against animals in such a vast area, the walking is as gruelling as it gets, and if you are determined to be fair then you stalk to 100M or less. should the animal spook, he has got several miles of bush to run in any direction.
IMO, (in addition to my previous post) being fair to the game also means practicing enough with whatever you are going to hunt with so that you are consitently proficient, learning enough anatomy to know how to reach the vitals from different angles, and being self-disciplined enough to hold back and not shoot unless you are confident that you will be able to hit the animal properly and ensure a swift death.
Being fair also means not shooting so late in the day that should you wound an animal you won't have enough time to track it.
And last, it also means using enough of whatever weapon you choose to snsure a swift death of your quarry; if it's a rifle or handgun the caliber and load should be suitable and if it's a bow then the power of the bow, weight of your arrows and quality of your tips should be adequate.
As for local laws, if you are breaking any of them then it is not hunting to begin with, more likely poaching.
In all your posts you pass a lot of criticism and sound very critical, could you perhaps tell us what you consider a fair-chase hunt?
Brgds,
Danny