The Latest Fad in Internet Animal Cruelty: Pay-Per-View Hunting |
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April 8, 2005
It started in Texas. In late January, entrepreneur 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.
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News Update: |
The outcry against Internet hunting has been heard. As of July 17, 2006, the following states have banned Internet hunting:
Alabama
California
Kentucky
Louisiana
Maine
Maryland
Michigan
Minnesota
Mississippi
New Hampshire
New Jersey
New Mexico
New York
North Carolina
Pennsylvania
Rhode Island
South Carolina
Tennessee
Texas
Vermont
Virginia
West Virginia
Wisconsin |
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. Even Live-Shot's home state has turned on it. Calling Internet hunting, "unnatural, unfair, and immoral," Rep. Todd Smith (R-Euless), introduced H.B. 2026, outlawing "computer-assisted remote hunting if the animal being hunted is located in this state." The bill was passed last June. But the Lone Star state wasn't alone in banning internet hunt. Not by a long shot.
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 Landslide of Legislation
As of July 12, 2005, Maine, Minnesota, North Carolina, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia had signed into law bills banning internet hunting. Lawmakers in Alabama, California, Delaware, Hawaii, Illinois, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, and Wisconsin also introduced bills to stop Internet hunting before it takes hold. The bills in Alabama and Illinois died, but the issue may be brought up again.
The federal government hasn't lagged too far behind in moving to block Internet hunts. Tom Davis (R-VA) recently introduced H.R. 1558, "because gun owners, hunters, animal rights organizations and more than a dozen state legislatures oppose online, computer-assisted hunting." H.R. 1558 would make participation in Internet hunting a felony. Pacelle sees federal legislation as essential: "The HSUS backs the bills at the state level, but the Congress must speak on this issue, since remote hunting involves the Internet and is therefore a matter of interstate commerce."
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.
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.
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See the Video
Canned Hunts
Related Links
The Thrill of the Kill: Canned Hunts
What You Can Do about Canned Hunts
Trophy Hunting
Internet Hunting: Where Does Your State Stand?
State Wildlife Management: The Pervasive Influence of Hunters, Hunting, Culture, and Money
Your Tax Dollars at Work? Hunters Net Hefty Deductions for Trophy Animals
