Online Hunt - Confirms first kill

Terrier

I know this was a previous thread... but it seems someone has shot a hog from 5000 miles away...

THRILL-seekers can now hunt and shoot a real, live animal from thousands of miles away - with a simple click of a mouse. There will be no thrill of the chase and the quarry will stand little chance, even from 5,000 miles away.

Britons, however, are clamouring to sign up for the latest internet thrill: hunting and shooting a real animal with the click of a mouse.

More than 300 people, including Scots, Londoners and other would-be marksmen from Australia to Peru, have put down money for a live game shoot in which they will squeeze the trigger via their computer and modem.

Catalina goats, Barbary sheep, fallow deer, red stags and blackbuck antelope are among the exotic species available for the remote hunts, which take place in Texas. Britain's foxhunting ban has made it one of the target countries for the man behind the venture, John Lockwood, a car body repair estimator in San Antonio, Texas. His internet site is the first dedicated to what critics have branded "pay-per-view slaughter".

He said: "The system is designed for people who can't hunt the old-fashioned way." Howard Giles (30) was the first person to shoot a real animal on the internet, using a 30.06 telescopic rifle rigged up in a shed on Mr Lockwood's ranch and linked to the worldwide web. "I was sitting in my home office about 45 miles away, just waiting." After an hour, a solitary wild hog wandered from the undergrowth about 60 yards from the shed. Mr Giles clicked the mouse, the rifle fired and a the hog was hit in the neck. Legislators in Texas and other American states have already moved to ban the new practice and even hunting organisations have condemned it. British groups are also appalled.

"This is absolutely despicable," said Simon Clarke, a spokesman for the British Association for Shooting and Conservation.

The cost of killing an animal over the internet is just $15 (€11) a month for membership and $150 for an hour-long hunt. (© Daily Telegraph, London)

Fallschirmjager

how long before someone deploys this in the next war....or indeed a current one

Sparks

First killing of a human through this method happened in 2002 in Yemen, Fall. A Predator UAV fired an air-to-ground missile at a car of suspected terrorists, killing all of them.
http://archives.cnn.com/2002/WORLD/meast/11/05/yemen.blast/

Fallschirmjager

jeeze Sparks i forgot all about that...as i approach my 40 year on the planet ..my brain goes south...

Sparks

From IOL:

Online hunting sparks outrage in US
05/04/2005 - 14:46:48

A new form of hunting which allows participants to shoot wild boar and antelope by a simple click of the mouse is stirring up great controversy in the United States.

Online hunting has outraged animal rights activists, gun advocates and politicians from 14 states, all trying to get the sport banned.

Participants control a video camera and a gun by remote control, carefully monitoring animals on a remote shooting range via the internet.

A click of the mouse from the comfort of your own armchair can discharge a round of bullets. For extra money, the meat or animal’s head can be shipped to your home.

Founders and members of Live-Shot.com insist the practice is ethical, and in particular allows the disabled to experience the thrill of the sport.

But the concept raises several ethical issues and critics have branded it “pay-per-view slaughter”.

The first paid-for live shoot is scheduled to take place on Saturday on a Texas ranch, the only online hunting facility in existence. But activists and politicians are racing to get it banned before it can begin.

The website warns participants this is not a video game. “This is real,” it says.

“What you see on your screen thru (sic) the camera is what is there. When you activate the fire control, you are sending a signal to the firing mechanism which discharges a round.”

The website’s founder, John Lockwood, admits the concept would not appeal to everyone.

“The idea of hunting this way doesn’t appeal to me,” he told the Christian Science Monitor (CSM).

“Most of us love getting into the field. But there are many that cannot.”

He said the idea was born from working with disabled hunters but he lists a soldier in Spain among supporters who wants to send meat to his family and a soldier in Iraq who simply misses the sport.

Mr Lockwood claims opponents simply do not understand how the system works and quite how many safety procedures are in place.

“I am in full agreement that there needs to be legislation and regulation controlling it,” he said. “But people are under the impression that this is a slaughtering machine and that’s not what it is.”

Groups joining forces to ban the practice are as diverse as the Humane Society of the United States, trophy hunting organisation Safari Club International and the National Rifle Association.

Michael Markarian from the Humane Society told the CSM: “Nobody ever said the wilderness had to be ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compliant.

“That is no justification for this practice, and it doesn’t give (disabled) people a true hunting experience anyway. It’s pay-per-view slaughter.”

Virginia became the first state to ban internet hunting and Texas has proposed a ban for killing animals native to the state.

A Bill to outlaw online hunting for any species will be heard in the Texas House of Representatives next Tuesday.

Gurgle

Well, if you're going to allow hunting, why not online hunting ?
At least this way is safer for everyone involved and the guns aren't brought home for the kids to play with afterwards.
Besides, once enough footage is collected, they can switch over to a simulator and nobody will know the difference.

homerhop

Gurgle wrote:

the guns aren't brought home for the kids to play with afterwards.

I just love the look of joy on their faces when I come home from shooting and let them play with my guns. :rolleyes:

Longslide45

My grandfather hunted until he was 95.And pined away until he was 99,that he couldnt go hunting anymore,due to his old age.He had been hunting since he was ten.Just maybe,a system like this would make alot of old hunters still very happy.Put an age barrier on it .Not useable to anyone under the age of 75,or with an extreme medical disability.
Like it or lump it ,but this will be the way of the future.At least it isnt a "canned hunt".

Gurgle

homerhop wrote:

I just love the look of joy on their faces when I come home from shooting and let them play with my guns. :rolleyes:

I didn't think there were any southern redneck pig-town roadkill eating trash on boards.

Longslide45

Quit talkin about my home town of Limerick in such a dispraging manner!
I am a redneck and proud of it!And whats wrong with roadkill?So long as it aint too badly mushed,it's meat.