States Ban Hunting of Live Animals over the Internet

LiveScience ^ | 07/08/06

[nypokerface]

Louisiana has joined 21 other states in banning Internet hunting, the practice of using a mouse click to kill animals on a distant game farm.

The cyber-shooting idea was the brainchild of Texan John Lockwood, who started the web site Live-Shot.com.

The idea was this: Hunters sign up on the web site and pay some $1,500 or more. They schedule a session, then log on at their appointed time to watch a feeding station on the computer screen. The animal that was ordered—from wild hogs to antelope—is in the area, and when it approaches the food, the hunter moves on-screen crosshairs into place. A click of the mouse fires a rifle to kill the animal.

The armchair hunter's trophy animal would then be mounted and shipped for display.

Texas outlawed the practice last year.

Humane Society executive vice president Michael Markarian was pleased with the decision in Louisiana.

"Responsible hunters know there's no sport in shooting an animal remotely while lying in bed and wearing camouflage pajamas," Markarian said in a statement today.

Meanwhile, the game farm's web site now says hunters must come to the farm, where they "can now offer a unique hunting opportunity for disabled and handicapped hunters, as well as others, who may need the assistance of our system while hunting."

[AlaninSA]

Click and point hunting is fine.

But I draw the line at the bait and hunt methods used by the "tough guys" here in Texas. Never before have I seen such a bunch of losers.

Dropping bait and then shooting an animal as it feeds is about the least manly thing one could do. Real hunters don't use this method. No, I'm not calling for a ban on it. I am calling for widespread ridicule of these wimps.

I'd like nothing more than to walk up to each of these guys -- in his blind next to his feeder -- and say, "hey lard butt, get up and hunt like a man."

[AlaninSA]

Yup!....When I grew up..if u shot it u ate it!...I remember well as an inexperienced 12 year old hunter sneaking up on an apple tree full of grouse....After 2 flew in a direction where I could not get a shot (as grouse are prone to do) I was ready!...the next bird flew and I downed it...Unfortunately..it was a robin!!!...I can still remember my uncle whom i was hunting with, casually asking in typical dry down-east Maine humor..."Well Ill be go to hell!...you'll have to tell me what a robin tastes like...I never shot one before"......(an yeah, they're eatable, but i haven't tried another one since!)

Darn right!

Bait/feeder hunting is only done by the most pathetic excuses for men around.

[saleman]

While I don't like this practice, If you look at this dispassionately what you have is game management. And that is the responsibility of the landowner.

While I don't agree with hunting over feeders or from a vehicle, It is legal in Texas. Take it up with the lawmakers.

The article didn't say weather deer were harvested this way. I think probably not. It sounds to me like the animals were so called "exotics", or non- native species.

Dead is dead weather from home or at the game farm. These animals are raised expressly for sport hunting and nothing else.

[Dosa26]

Bait/feeder hunting is only done by the most pathetic excuses for men around.

Are farmers pathetic? That's what it is really, farming, putting meat in the freezer.

[JoeSixPack1]

If the inventor is someday eaten by jackals, I will not shed a tear for him.

I agree 100%!

Now if this was a 'point and click to kill a bomb toting terrorist', I'd go for one a day, or until I maxed out my credit card.

[dropzone]

Are farmers pathetic? That's what it is really, farming, putting meat in the freezer.

Now there's an example of moral equivalence a Berkeley professor would be proud of.

[AlaninSA]

Are farmers hunting?

Nope.

They're raising animals for food. A hunter is engaging in a sport that I (for one) consider an honorable method of gaining food and (from time to time) something to make a pair of gloves.

Does a farmer load up a rifle, suit up in camo and then mount the horns of his latest butchered steer on the wall?

Nope.

There's nothing wrong with hunting...if you're hunting.

My issue has nothing to do with the death of an animal. It has everything to do with wannabe tough guys attempting to claim to be hunters while doing nothing more than shooting livestock at the trough.

[Paddlefish]

Dead is dead weather from home or at the game farm. These animals are raised expressly for sport hunting and nothing else.

Excuse me, but under your definition the cattle, hogs, etc., at the slaughterhouse are animals raised for "sport hunting" because they were raised to be killed. Raised as part of a hunting family, I have shot a few deer and antelope. While I didn't enjoy it, I have no problem with hunters. Deer harvests are needed. However, killing animals at a feeder via the internet is neither "sport" nor "hunting." It is simply killing because you want to kill something. Like I said, I have no problem with hunters. I do have a problem with people who just want to kill something just for the sake of ending the life of a living creature.

[DC Bound]

There is a great, American ethic to your story. Thanks for the post.

[Dosa26]

Are farmers pathetic? That's what it is really, farming, putting meat in the freezer.

Now there's an example of moral equivalence a Berkeley professor would be proud of.

A rancher lets his cows roam his land then when it's time for harvest he herds them to the slaughterhouse and they are dispatched. Say a guy lets deer roam his land and puts out a feeder before deer season. When it's time for harvest he dispatches them. What's the moral dif?

[mtbopfuyn]

This is sick and disgusting.

[Paddlefish]

What if we made it more ironic. Lure convicted pedophiles to computers to look at their internet porn, and then let the internet hunters put the crosshairs on them?? ,-}

[Dosa26]

It has everything to do with wannabe tough guys attempting to claim to be hunters while doing nothing more than shooting livestock at the trough.

I really don't give a fig what other people want to claim. This point and click thing is pathetic, but free enterprise nonetheless. IMO any one who pays money to mount heads on their wall is wasting money, but thats just me. I can remember the sport of tracking and moment of decision fine without visual aids.

[doug from upland]

I didn't add that, but you were reading my mind. A billion dollars could probably be raised if we had the opportunity to click and nail a terrorist.

[AlaninSA]

I think you understand that my point is not about "point and click," but with feeders.

Feeders are for losers.

[Dosa26]

Feeders are for losers.

I think we are in half agreement. Shooting off feeders is not hunting. Like I wasn't hunting one day when I was tagging along on a trap line in an area that had lots of rabbits. I felt like eating rabbit so I plugged an almost tame (no one shot rabbit there) rabbit. I wasn't hunting I was just baggin lunch.

[ccmay]

You know, they ought to replace the animals with humans and use remote controlled paint ball guns

Wasn't there a stink a few years ago about some paintball place where you could "hunt" girls in bikinis? Anybody else remember that?

-ccm

[traviskicks]

big government on the march (even in texas)...

[saleman]

It's not my definition. And the Antelope that the article is talking about are Blackbuck Antelope, native of India. They are nearly extinct in India, there are more in Texas than anywhere in the world.

I would prefer that folks would not use the word "hunt" to describe what happens in these canned hunts. But that's what they call it.

"I do have a problem with people who just want to kill something just for the sake of ending the life of a living creature."

I completely understand and almost agree. But you or I don't have the right to force our morality on other people unless it causes harm to someone else.