posted January 16, 2005 07:32 PM         

Log on and kill an animal in the wild
By MARTIN DELGADO
16jan05

AUSTRALIAN game hunters are logging on to a website that invites its users to shoot live animals with the click of a mouse.

The site, denounced as obscene by animal activists, will offer a real-time link to a US game hunting ranch where online shooters can kill their targets.
Video cameras will be connected to rifles with sensors that can be controlled by computer users anywhere in the world.

The rifle range overlooks a 145ha reserve in San Antonio, Texas, where deer, antelope and wild hogs roam.

Paying members will be able to take aim, shoot, then ship their kill to their home, stuffed and mounted as a trophy.

The site will even record footage of each kill and sell the grisly DVD to the user.

The site's developer, Texan gun enthusiast John Lockwood, 39, said it would give the frail, elderly and disabled a chance to enjoy the "thrill of the kill".

"This is an opportunity to introduce people from the city who have no idea what hunting is about," Mr Lockwood said.

The website will be operational later this year after a perimeter fence is built around the reserve.

It will offer a list of species to shoot to online hunters.

"Sheep . . . look for colour and horn combinations you prefer," it says.

"Wild hog . . . a large animal with protruding tusks will make a trophy worthy of display. Large males have a gamey flavour . . . excellent table fare."

Some Australian shooters welcomed the site.

"If you look at somebody who is elderly and can't get out in the field, it may be of interest to them," Sporting Shooters Association president Bob Cooper said.

But he added that the type of rifle and its distance from the target would probably result in painful injury to the creature rather than a "clean kill".

Rod Drew, of Field and Game Australia, said the website was known within the shooting fraternity but he would not endorse it.

"That's not what the hunting experience is about," he said. "It's about understanding the outdoors, the species and its habitat."

Humane Society International spokesperson Nicola Beynon said the site was "sick".

"It's terrible that the internet can allow people to anonymously, and in private, take part in depraved and obscene activities they would never want to be seen to enjoy publicly," she said.

"This is an appalling new low in cruelty to animals."

The membership fee for a month costs $26.30 and each 10-round shooting session costs $10.50.

A taxidermy fee of $308 is charged for each kill on top of a harvesting fee which varies for each species.

The harvest prices will be posted online when the live kill option is activated.

source:http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,11949436%255E11869,00.html

posted January 17, 2005 06:08 PM         

I'm going to see what can be done!

posted January 18, 2005 07:04 AM         

It's horrific and totally wrong. How ignorant, it makes me so mad Sick Bullies.

Those poor souls. Love to the animals