hunting via internet?

[joey]

Oddly Enough - Reuters


Texas Officials Wary of Plan to Hunt by Internet

Wed Nov 17, 8:45 AM ET Oddly Enough - Reuters


By Jeff Franks

HOUSTON (Reuters) - Hunters soon may be able to sit at their computers and blast away at animals on a Texas ranch via the Internet, a prospect that has state wildlife officials up in arms.



A controversial Web site, http://www.live-shot.com, already offers target practice with a .22 caliber rifle and could soon let hunters shoot at deer, antelope and wild pigs, site creator John Underwood said on Tuesday.


Texas officials are not quite sure what to make of Underwood's Web site, but may tweak existing laws to make sure Internet hunting does not get out of hand.


"This is the first one I've seen," said Texas Parks and Wildlife Department wildlife director Mike Berger. "The current state statutes don't cover this sort of thing."


Underwood, an estimator for a San Antonio, Texas auto body shop, has invested $10,000 to build a platform for a rifle and camera that can be remotely aimed on his 330-acre (133-hectare) southwest Texas ranch by anyone on the Internet anywhere in the world.


The idea came last year while viewing another Web site on which cameras posted in the wild are used to snap photos of animals.


"We were looking at a beautiful white-tail buck and my friend said 'If you just had a gun for that.' A little light bulb went off in my head," he said.


Internet hunting could be popular with disabled hunters unable to get out in the woods or distant hunters who cannot afford a trip to Texas, Underwood said.


Berger said state law only covers "regulated animals" such as native deer and birds and cannot prevent Underwood from offering Internet hunts of "unregulated" animals such as non-native deer that many ranchers have imported and wild pigs.


He has proposed a rule that will come up for public discussion in January that anyone hunting animals covered by state law must be physically on site when they shoot.


Berger expressed reservations about remote control hunting, but noted that humans have always adopted new technologies to hunt.


"First it was rocks and clubs, then we sharpened it and put it on a stick. Then there was the bow and arrow, black powder, smokeless power and optics," Berger said. "Maybe this is the next technological step out there."


Underwood, 39, said he will offer animal hunting as soon as he gets a fast Internet connection to his remote ranch that will enable hunters to aim the rifle quickly at passing animals.


He said an attendant would retrieve shot animals for the shooters, who could have the heads preserved by a taxidermist. They could also have the meat processed and shipped home, or donated to animal orphanages.

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Any thoughts?

Meh, sorry for the bizarre postings----I'm bored and it's crappy outside....

[Tim and Julie B]

That is weird....armchair hunters??? So much for we go out to hunt to spend time with the guys and enjoy nature (by blowing it's head off). It will be to easy for people, you should have to get your hands dirty instead of it looking like a video game. I hope that gun has a lock out or some crackpot will shoot at the ranch employees as they are getting the deer.

[Removed_2815]

Originally posted by joey
"We were looking at a beautiful white-tail buck and my friend said 'If you just had a gun for that.'

Sure sounds like a Texan! Yeehaw!

[joey]

Originally posted by Tim and Julie B
I hope that gun has a lock out or some crackpot will shoot at the ranch employees as they are getting the deer.

THAT would be humorous!

[rocketjawa]

Are you sure this isnt a hoax, like that site that said for 10K you could hunt naked porn stars in the woods with a paintball gun??

hunting for bambie . com I think was that site...

[Will]

This might just be the dumbest thing I've heard in a long, long time...

Why doesn't it surprise me the guy is from Texas...?

For 10K you could hunt naked porn stars in the woods with a paintball gun??

Now if I were sitting on a mountain of money, that's something I could get into... lol.

[Neo]

people could get away w/ murder pretty easily w/ that thing

[peterm15]

i think its stupid.... now if he sai he would bring accident victems(quadrapoligics) that used to hunt go to the woods with them and have some sort of autimated gun like that for them to hunt it wouldnt be so bad..... like have some sort of hook up for them to aim and fire...

keep in mind i am against hunting, i just think everyone should have equal oppritunity....

[concept3]

way to go joey now all the tree huggers are going to start crying

[RepTylE]

What a nice way to desensitize people to killing. I hunted for the first half of my life and at least when I shot something I did it directly and if I had to dispatch a wounded animal I did it. I also went out and hunted in all weather and made the physical effort but now the process is reduced to not much more than a video game.
What's next? No wait don't answer, I don't want to know.

[noname]

I'm hardly a "tree hugger", but the thought of hunting anything, disgusts and infuriates me. Yeah, I'm sure it's great to spend a day outdoors with the boys, but why the heck would you need to kill an innocent animal in order to make your day pleasurable. HOW is that pleasurable? I understand that back in the day, hunting was a necessity, however, nowadays you can buy anything you could ever need at a store five minutes from your home. And heck, drive there if you're too lazy to walk. Society takes everything we have for granted, and it's going to bite us in the a$$ one day. Maybe not in our generation, but perhaps in that of our children, or their children. If we appreciated all the beautiful things that exist around us, rather than hunting them down for the adrenaline rush, our world would be a better place.

I'm fully aware that this post was intended merely to discuss this "game", but I just thought I'd put my two cents in. I'm not even going to bother discussing the laziness of the people who are thinking of this...I'm sure you all figure where I stand on that.

Courtney

[clint545]

This world can be a very sad place when you hear about this sort of thing, the whole mentallity of it. With all the leaps and bounds forward with technology that we should be using to better our lives and mend the Earth (from things we've caused it), there's still those yahoos that want to use it for sick and lazy purposes.

[Katt]

The whole live shot idea is kind of neat, but to hunt that way? Kind of lame. Sort of like canned hunts. How can you call yourself a hunter?? Where's the stalking and out witting your prey?

I have respect for most hunters, a lot of hunters believe in conservation b/c without species continuing on, there will be nothing left to hunt. I really admire bow and arrow hunters.

I would like to learn to hunt one day and eat the things I kill. Trophy hunting I don't understand too much b/c it's not like the hunter did anything to create the animal, he just got lucky enough to be there with a gun and shoot it.

I say boo to the lazy hunters!

[HeatherRose]

While I have some respect for hunters and come from a town where everyone hunts from the age of five, I find so many things wrong with this sentence:

"We were looking at a beautiful white-tail buck and my friend said 'If you just had a gun for that.' A little light bulb went off in my head," he said.

[Matt_K]

Originally posted by Katt
Trophy hunting I don't understand too much b/c it's not like the hunter did anything to create the animal, he just got lucky enough to be there with a gun and shoot it.

It's more like Hunting for Sport and getting lucky enough to get a Trophy..

I'm an avid fisherman and have many a fish on my wall.. All of which are Replica mounts but they're there none the less.. I fish for the sport of it, but when you catch a once in a lifetime fish, sometimes a picture just isn't enough..

With hunting, if you shot it, chances are it's dead anyway, so why not put the head on your wall as a trophy?? I see nothing wrong with it so long as the meat is used and the animal wasn't killed JUST for the head..

-Matt