AUGUSTA (AP) – A bill that would require large game-shooting areas in Maine to close within two years appears to be on its way to defeat.

The Legislature’s Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry Committee voted Wednesday to kill the bill. The Kennebec Journal newspaper in Augusta says it appears the committee vote will be unanimous.

Shooting-area owners opposed the bill, saying they provide a safe hunting experience for people who want to hunt deer, bison and boar.

But the sponsor of the bill, Biddeford Democratic Rep. Alan Casavant, called the hunting preserves “barbaric and designed to satisfy the blood lust of a handful of out-of-staters.” Maine has nine licensed facilities, two of which are inactive.