State gives approval for Candywood Whitetail Ranch to begin operations

VIENNA _ The Ohio Department of Agriculture has given the Candywood Whitetail Ranch on Scoville North Road its approval to begin operations. It is the former Candywood golf course.

An ODA spokesman said earlier that the ODA approval, which was granted April 6, was a formality once the Ohio Department of Natural Resources approved the facility April 1.

A rally took place outside of the Vienna Township trustees meeting April 4 that included about 100 people, most holding signs opposed to the ranch, about eight others expressing support.

The ranch has a website that describes the business as 275 acres of “timber, fields of grain crops and vast areas of multifloral brush that provide premium whitetail habitat.”

It lists the price to hunt whitetail deer starting at $1,800 and ranging to $14,500 or more. The facility also lists sheep at $1,500 and up, boar $500 and up. Prices were not given for elk, red stag, bison and fallow deer.