Fundamental to ethical hunting is the idea of fair chase. This concept addresses the balance between the hunter and the hunted. It is a balance that allows hunters to occasionally succeed while animals generally avoid being taken....

The concept of fair chase is important to hunting. The general public will not tolerate hunting under any other circumstance. Until ethical hunting environments and fair-chase principles are addressed as a part of resource management, deciding what is fair remains a personal responsibility. Although you and the animals you hunt are equally involved, only you — the hunter — can judge its fairness, and the choices you make are important because they reflect on hunting as an activity....

There are some activities that are clearly unfair as well as unethical. At the top of the list is shooting captive or domesticated big game animals in commercial killing areas where a person with a gun is guaranteed an animal to shoot. These shooting grounds are alien to any consideration of ethical hunting. When discussing the ethic of fair chase, it is important to clarify that we are talking about hunting free-ranging wild animals....

The mechanized pursuit of wildlife is high on the list of violating fair-chase principles. We have invented machines to carry ourselves over land, seas, and air. Evolution of the animals we pursue cannot keep pace with these inventions. If we are to pursue animals fairly, the ethical choice is clear — we must pursue them on foot. The ethical hunter never chases or harasses wildlife with a machine....

In addition to hunting practices, there is a constant flow of products developed to provide advantages to hunters. Sights, scents, calls, baits, decoys, devices, and techniques of infinite variety fill the marketplace. In each case and individual choice must be made as to what sustains fair chase and what violates that concept.

Hunters have experienced cases where the public has stepped in and put and end to certain hunting seasons and practices. In most cases, these challenges have addressed what is fair chase and what is not. As hunters, we must establish a high ethical standard of fair chase or we risk three things important to our future. One is the leadership in doing what is right for wildlife; the second is the opportunity to hunt; and the third is our self-respect.