Real live internet hunting is here

Late last year we read about a plan to launch Internet hunting. The perverse dream has materialized. Mike Petik has sent me an article from the Detroit Free Press, March 7, headed "High-tech hunting: Site lets you shoot game from home."

It opens:
"Howard Giles was beginning to think he would never get a decent shot at the wild hog. But about an hour into the hunt, the beast finally moved into the rifle's sights, and Giles fired -- with the click of a mouse.

"That's right, Giles was in his home office in San Antonio, aiming at the animal using a program on his computer. The hog was eating soured corn in the Texas Hill Country 45 miles away, oblivious to the remote-controlled 30.06 rifle pointing at his neck."

There is a strong quote from Texas state Rep. Todd Smith, R-Euless, who has introduced legislation to ban remote-controlled hunting and says: "I don't believe we should be able to kill God's creatures with the click of a mouse. The creatures of this Earth have a hard enough time sustaining themselves while we're after them when we're physically present. They don't need this."

It is fascinating to read about another of the Internet hunters:
"Hundreds of miles away, in Ligonier, Ind., Dale Hagberg, who is paralyzed from the chin down, had his eyes trained on a computer screen, which displayed the wilted balloons he had just fired upon through the Web site.
He operated the on-screen controls -- four arrows in a circle and a 'fire' button in the middle -- by manipulating a joystick he can insert into his mouth. In early April, Hagberg, 38, hopes to become the second Live-Shot aficionado to shoot a hog by remote control.
He had been an avid hunter before breaking his neck in a diving accident 18 years ago. Now confined to a bed, Hagberg has never managed to shake off the desire to hunt wild animals."

You can read the whole article on line at:
http://www.freep.com/sports/outdoors/hunt7e_20050307.htm

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Yours and the animals',
Karen Dawn

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