My point was first hand knowledge? Never seen one in the wild, yet know they are tame or whatever.

I will elaborate on my example for info as an illustration.

The ram I shot was during a red stag hunt on a private farm in Central North Island near some mountainous/hilly region with a wild deer herds. A deer farm on the farm attracted stags to it. I had shot a nice stag that morning, and we had it in the vehicle and were driving it to the farm sheds to skin and gut it. On the way we spotted on a hill top a group of extremely dirty brown sheep that the guide said were wild sheep. He said there was a good ram among them, did I want him? I asked how much, then said I would think about it and we drove on and dealt with the stag carcase.

While there I thought about it and decided that they didn't look like domestic sheep, they also didn't act like it and later didn't either. The sheep were arranged in a circle on top of the hill so they could see in all directions of approach. Never seen this in domestic sheep, but who knows.

I decided I would never purposely hunt a ram in NZ, and was unlikely to ever seen some again in the wild, so why not, if they were still there, seeing there was an opportunity at hand. Sure no great trophy to brag about but who cares.

Driving back we could see in the distance they were still lying up, and planned a stalk to a neighbouring hill from the crest to take a shot. We did this and I took the shot but not well, not allowing for the animal lying up shooting too high or low (I forget). They ran off, and running to a new position I managed to shoot the ram again. The guide thought I had shot the wrong one the second time, but I hadn't. The rest of the "flock" ran straight through over, or under, a sheep stock fence as if it wasn't there and down into a very thick scrubby ravine and away.

Were they wild? To me I would say yes. The trophy now has been cleaned and washed many times so the brown is now nice and woolly.

Were they Arapawa sheep? No. But they were wild/feral.

Is it a great trophy? Not to me, but no lesser than any feral goat or pig trophy. Not on the level of a big horn or dall sheep trophy from true wild stock. But neither is a feral goat equivalent to a Rocky Mountain goat, or a feral boar, equivalent to a wild boar trophy.

Is it anyone else's business? NO. Shot in the wild, not canned at all in any form.

As for Arapawa sheep on game hunting reserves. Is the problem the fences or the sheep? Again is it anyone's business if a guy says it was free range and it was fun for him.

NZ really is a country of the "long white can" in so many ways, that any free range wild trophy could be questioned and sometimes very unfairly. Forget about sheep or high fences, shooting from helicopters, spotting game from helicopters, then dropping off for the shot, everything questionable seems to be openly practised there and encouraged.

No need to be impolite though.

However NZ is still a great place to hunt and have fun, and it should be a hunting paradise.