The Latest Fad in Internet Animal Cruelty: Pay-Per-View Hunting (sickening)

http://www.hsus.org/wildlife/wildlif...slaughter.html
The Latest Fad in Internet Animal Cruelty: Pay-Per-View Hunting


April 8, 2005


©1990 HSUS
In late January, enterpreneur John Lockwood let a friend become the first "hunter" to kill a confined animal via computer. The friend, Howard Giles, sitting in his home office 45 miles from Lockwood's canned hunting ranch in the Texas Hill Country, squarely lined up the animal in his computer sights and clicked the mouse. A rifle mounted in a blind back on Lockwood's ranch then fired a bullet at a wild hog hunched over a feeding station.

At that point a page should have popped up on Giles' computer screen: Fatality Not Found. According to news reports, Giles' remote-control shot hit the hog in the neck, wounding the animal. Lockwood, on site at the ranch, shot the animal two more times to kill him.

Welcome to the whacked-out world of Live-Shot.com, where you can kill a captive exotic animal from the comfort of your living room. By turning a computer into a deadly weapon, Live-Shot.com has created trophy hunting without the fuss and muss of having to hunt at all. A March report by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram noted that more than 350 people are already members of Live-Shot.com, each paying $14.95 a month (plus $5.95 per ten rounds of ammunition) to fire at inanimate targets. Joystick hunting costs considerably more—$300 per two hours, which doesn't include the price of the animal killed, the meat processing, taxidermy, and shipping. Live-Shot.com expects the second computer-assisted "hunt" to take place on April 9, by an Indiana man paralyzed from the neck down.

Just the possibility of desktop killing has united two groups that usually eyeball each other warily—humane advocates and hunters. State legislators are also setting their sights on Internet hunting. Virginia has just banned it, Tennessee has a bill awaiting the governor's signature, and 13 other states are considering prohibitions.

The Live-Shot Heard 'Round the World

Live-Shot works like this: The prospective armchair sportsman signs up on the web site and pays a deposit and fees of more than $1,500 to schedule a session. (The final cost depends on the species and size of the animal killed and the cost of having the trophy mounted.) The hunter logs on again at the scheduled time and watches the feeding station on his computer screen. The animal ordered is present in the area, and when the creature approaches the food, the 'Net "hunter" uses his mouse to line the victim up in the on-screen crosshairs. A click of the mouse fires the rifle.

As with canned hunting in general, Live-Shot does not require the so-called hunter to possess any shooting skills, so the animal's death may be a drawn-out, agonizing one. Furthermore, there is no indication on the web site that the client must have a hunting license either in his or her own state or in Texas.

Animal advocates and hunters alike are outraged by this hi-tech atrocity. The National Rifle Association has come out strongly against Internet hunting. "The NRA believes the element of a fair chase is a vital part of the American hunting heritage," said spokesperson Kelly Hobbs. "Shooting an animal from three states away would not be considered a fair chase."

According to Kirby Brown, executive director of the pro-hunting Texas Wildlife Association, "The idea of sitting at a computer screen playing a video game and activating a remote-controlled firearm to shoot an animal is not hunting. It's off the ethical charts."

Wayne Pacelle, president and CEO of The Humane Society of the United States, was speaking for everyone who cares about animals when he said, "This is a snuff film scenario in which animals will be senselessly killed for the voyeuristic pleasure of someone sitting at a keyboard. It is pay-per-view slaughter. This remotely delivered cruelty should be shut down and outlawed immediately."

A number of state lawmakers agree. According to a story in the Holland, Michigan, Sentinel, Texas state Rep. Todd Smith (R-Euless), calls Internet hunting, "unnatural, unfair, and immoral." Even better, Smith has introduced a bill to ban Internet hunting in Texas.

Legislators in other states are following suit. Lawmakers in Alabama, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, South Carolina, West Virginia, and Wisconsin have also introduced bills to stop Internet hunting before it takes hold. A Virginia bill was recently signed into law by the governor, and lawmakers in Tennessee recently passed their own ban.

Launched last year, Live-Shot.com is the brainchild of Lockwood, a San Antonio body-shop estimator who claims he just wants to provide people with disabilities a chance to hunt. His altruistic talk conveniently sidesteps the ethical and moral issues of Internet hunting: Lockwood's real-life video game has real-life consequences for animals—and perhaps for people, if the remote-control rifle software lands in the wrong hands. But Live-Shot.com also lacks any sense of fair chase, and it does not impose any hardship on the hunter who can fire shot after shot with all the burden of booking airline tickets. This is disembodied killing in which the hunter experiences no consequences: He sees no blood, hears no cries, feels nothing but the joy of the kill, like a kid with a violent video game.

So while the legislative activity in several states is a good start, The HSUS's Pacelle believes that federal action is warranted to prevent Internet hunting from getting a foothold in cyberspace.

Remote-control hunting, after all, is not hunting at all. Like the video game Grand Theft Auto, Live-Shot.com turns the joystick into a deadly weapon. Unfortunately, the web site's victims are not cartoons.

:mad: :mad: :mad: It's bad enough that kids are playing those awful, violent games on the computer. But this just takes the cake!!!

I hope they shut it down and fast! Before it does any damage.

aaaaha? And what happens when a *person* gets shot? accidentally or not.

I had to read and reread this to understand it...unbelievable!

Hooray for California.:)


California to ban hunting over Internet
Wednesday, May 4, 2005 Posted: 10:37 AM EDT (1437 GMT)



SACRAMENTO, California (AP) -- Wildlife regulators took the first step Tuesday to bar hunters from using the Internet to shoot animals, responding to a Texas Web site that planned to let users fire at real game with the click of a mouse.

The Fish and Game Commission ordered wildlife officials to prepare emergency regulations to ban the practice. A period of public comment will follow.

"We don't think Californians should be able to hunt sitting at their computers at home," said Steve Martarano, a spokesman for the state Department of Fish and Game.

A bill passed by the state Senate two weeks ago would prohibit use of computer-assisted hunting sites and ban the import or export of any animal killed using computer-assisted hunting. The measure now moves to the state Assembly.


At least 14 other states and Congress are considering similar bills.

Groups including the California Sportsmen's Association, Safari Club International and the Outdoor Sportsman's Coalition of California support the ban, saying hunting over the Internet is unethical and unsporting.

Supporters have suggested the remote hunting could be beneficial for hunters with disabilities and questioned why Californians should be barred from patronizing a legitimate Texas business.

I'm glad CA banned it right away. I wasn't sure if I should believe it at first, but WOW...that's just....um...no...

Thanks for posting your message about this bizarre - downright moronic computer hunting game! These people have no regard obviously for animal life and are cowards that they need to shoot a helpless animal whether on the screen or out in the woods. What is it - some kind of a macho thing?! I can't believe that people actually subscribe to partake in this kind of sick sport! They used to say years ago that kids that tortured or killed animals were more than likely to murder eventually. Makes you think, doesn't it?! What a sick world we live in. I am glad that the people we have in congress and the senate are doing something to try and stop it, but you know the ACLU - they will be all over this I'm sure.