States Ban Hunting of Live Animals over the Internet

[Monica]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20060707/sc_space/statesbanhuntingofliveanimalsovertheinternet;_ylt= AhTNBjWY5ofYCZGJczNRewcDW7oF;_ylu=X3oDMTBhZDhxNDFz BHNlYwNtZW5ld3M-

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."

I didn't even know something like that existed. My dad hunts deer, but he actually goes out in the woods and does it. That's kinda lazy to play a game online and then have them mail you the deer...O_o

[biggiy05]

It's stupid too. Why would you pay that kind of money just so you can sit on your ass and shoot the animal from your home.

"Hey Joe, nice deer you got there, where did you find him at?" "In my living room Dale, I just hit a button and it shot the deer and then they shipped it to me"

Talk about lazy.

[Prrkitty]

I can *MAYBE* see making arrangements for someone that's handicapped or disabled that wanted to hunt.

But definately NOT do it over the web. That's just plain stupid and lazy.

[koopa]

Talk about pathetic ... at least one new law that has a point to it.
(Though this way, the vice president could have saved himself a lot of embarrasment.)

[Cloral]

They did a piece on this guy's website a while ago on the Daily Show.

[MottZilla]

Wow, that's a hell of an idea. The only thing I don't agree with really is the whole feeding area. I mean it's not hunting when the animal stands there eating food you had placed there while you shoot it. Also the other thing, kinda retarded to put out a remote control gun. Maybe there's something else you'd rather shoot!

What a bizarre story.

[Rainman]

It's retarded, but I don't really have a problem with the site. Hopefully the owner of the land picked up the shot game and used the meat though.

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

pew pew pew! HEADSHOT!! pew pew pew! MULTIKILL!! HIGH SCORE!!!



How utterly retarded. If you can't hunt, you don't deserve to shoot anything. I don't care if you're disabled. I don't care if you're a cancer kid who just wants to shoot a trophy buck before you die. There's no sport in killing an animal for sport, and no point in hunting an animal if you're not going to actually hunt it.

[Prrkitty]

I've been thinking a lot about this thread since it was posted. My heart believes that hunting should ONLY be for finding meat to put on your table to eat.

I do not believe in "sport hunting"... the sort of hunting that is only so that someone can put some animals head on their wall as if to show just how much of a "man" that person is.

[Dechipher]

Why can't we do this in Iraq?

[Monica]

I agree with you, Raven and Kitty, we eat everything my dad kills (well he does, I don't have a taste for deer meat) and he has like 2 deer heads on the wall but that's it. He plays Deer Hunter the PC video game for sport (and IT's just a game, lol)

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

If you ask me, there's no harm in putting an animal's head up on the wall, provided that the rest of it is in your belly. If you just want to shoot something, get a decoy and take it to the target range.

[koopa]

The argument over here is that hunting is necessary to control the size of the deer population (this is small Switzerland I'm talking about, and what few forests are left). I don't know what to make of it - if it's true that you have to keep the population under control by culling, I think that's another reason to hunt.

Apart from that and hunting to eat, I agree with Prrkitty, Monica, and DSG - hunting for the sake of killing and trophies is wrong in my opinion.

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

Lots of states over here do that, Koopa, and Michigan is no exception. I don't think deer are specifically regulated for population control, apart from having to buy kill tags for each animal, but I know that for some other wild game, such as certain kinds of fish, the number that can be taken each year is STRICTLY regulated. I forget which species, but there's a certain kind of fish that gets taken in winter only (ice fishing), and there's an annual lottery to decide who gets the honor, because only ten are allowed to be caught every year. It's a big deal, wherever it goes on at.

[Monica]

Oh yeah I forgot about that, my dad hunts at the Wildlife Refuge when they need help controlling the deer population.

[Rainman]

The argument over here is that hunting is necessary to control the size of the deer population (this is small Switzerland I'm talking about, and what few forests are left). I don't know what to make of it - if it's true that you have to keep the population under control by culling, I think that's another reason to hunt.

Apart from that and hunting to eat, I agree with Prrkitty, Monica, and DSG - hunting for the sake of killing and trophies is wrong in my opinion.

What does it hurt though? There is no reason to care about what happens to the body after it's dead at least in a legal sense. I would never hunt without keeping the meat, but I don't see who it's hurting as long as the population isn't over hunted. I don't see where the moral outrage is coming from unless it's from over-empathising with the animals that goes on in this country. I would consider a trophy-only hunter a jackass, but I find no evil in it.

[{DSG}DarkRaven]

Need I remind you, Rainman, that shooting animals just for the fun of watching them die is why McDonalds serves hamburgers and not buffalo burgers?

[MacWeirdo42]

I'm going to have to join in my agreement that hunting for sport is wrong. If you're not eating the damn thing, then you have no business shooting it. Yeah, I know, overpopulation and such, but that's no excuse not to put the dead animals to good use.

It's wasteful, and it just seems cruel, in my opinion. On the other hand, they have rifles, and I don't, so I guess they're pretty much free to do whatever they want, I won't try to stop 'em.