Internet Hunting Has Got to Stop -- If It Ever Starts

[snopes]

The Humane Society of the United States last year mailed more than 50,000 people an urgent message, underlined and in bold type: "Such horrific cruelty must stop and stop now!"

The cruelty in question was Internet hunting, which the animal-rights group described as the "sick and depraved" sport of shooting live game with a gun controlled remotely over the Web. Responding to the Humane Society's call, 33 states have outlawed Internet hunting since 2005, and a bill to ban it nationally has been introduced in Congress.

But nobody actually hunts animals over the Internet. Although the concept -- first broached publicly by a Texas entrepreneur in 2004 -- is technically feasible, it hasn't caught on. How so many states have nonetheless come to ban the practice is a testament to public alarm over Internet threats and the gilded life of legislation that nobody opposes.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article...f_main_tff_top

[lord_feldon]

Is an animal dying less cruel if someone is actually there to pull the trigger?

Originally Posted by snopes

The Humane Society of the United States last year mailed more than 50,000 people an urgent message, underlined and in bold type: "Such horrific cruelty must stop and stop now!"

The cruelty in question was Internet hunting, which the animal-rights group described as the "sick and depraved" sport of shooting live game with a gun controlled remotely over the Web. Responding to the Humane Society's call, 33 states have outlawed Internet hunting since 2005, and a bill to ban it nationally has been introduced in Congress.

But nobody actually hunts animals over the Internet. Although the concept -- first broached publicly by a Texas entrepreneur in 2004 -- is technically feasible, it hasn't caught on. How so many states have nonetheless come to ban the practice is a testament to public alarm over Internet threats and the gilded life of legislation that nobody opposes.

http://online.wsj.com/public/article...f_main_tff_top

What a waste...of time! Surely legislators have better things to do than this! Wait...scratch that. I'd rather they did this than try to figure out more creative ways to deprive people of their constitutional rights and separate us from our money!

[Lady Neeva]

It's not as much of a waste of time as you might think -- it's likely that, since it won't be impacting anyone because it's not actually happening at this time, there won't be much opposition. So it will likely pass, and become illegal, before it's really an issue.

If you can stop something before it even starts, isn't it a good idea to do so?

I think the idea is just sick myself, and I don't have a problem with real hunting. If you want to "hunt" without leaving your chair, there are probably a dozen computer games out there you can do that with.

[A Turtle Named Mack]

One huge danger would be overbroad legislation, trying to cover all the possible bases, making a lot of activities illegal. This wouldn;t be the first time legislation got applied far beyond its intent.

Also there is a huge danger of violation of First Amendment rights (relevant since this seems to be USA legislation). This all wrapped up in communication of ideas - then carried into action - after all.

[Kutter]

There is a big difference between technically feasible and practically so.

Sure, it may be possible to set up a gun/webcam combo and control it from the internet. However, the idea that any redneck geek can log onto this guncam for $19.99 a month and blast away at the hordes of scampering deer and bunnies is pretty silly.

In reality, what you would have is a very expensive and difficult to maintain webcam looking at an empty field.

[Lady Neeva]

It would be an empty field... until some rocket scientist (yes, that is in fact a pejorative term when I use it in this manner) got the bright idea to drive a (probably drugged, definitely disoriented) big game animal across it.

It's called a canned hunt, and it's more of an abomination than anything else in hunting. Even trophy hunters (a class I generally have little use or respect for... why kill it if you aren't going to eat it? It's wasteful) are slightly less worthless than people who knowingly participate in canned hunts.

Stick something about banning canned hunts in there, and I'd be more interested/involved than my current "eh, it's not a bad idea but nothing to get excited about" attitude.

Anyways, was just saying that banning something before it becomes a problem isn't always necessarily a waste of time.

[Pseudo_Croat]

Pardon me for being naive (again), but what's so despicable about canned hunts? Why is better that one has a chance of not bagging anything than a guarantee of bagging something?

- Pseudo_Croat

[robbiev]

Originally Posted by Pseudo_Croat

Pardon me for being naive (again), but what's so despicable about canned hunts? Why is better that one has a chance of not bagging anything than a guarantee of bagging something?

- Pseudo_Croat

I think it's the idea that it's "set up." If you're hunting for food to survive, it's one thing, but if you're hunting just because you want to go out and kill something, or just so you can hang an animal head on your wall, it's considered cheating by some people.

Part of the sport of it is actually going out and hunting. Going somewhere where you're guaranteed (or practically guaranteed) to see artificially inflated numbers of whatever you're looking for isn't really hunting.

In a crude way, it's sort of like paying for hookers, then bragging about your prowess in picking up women.

[Eddylizard]

"Not like that oik Palfrey, invite him to one of my shoots, and he shot a runner...Yeah, saw it with my own eyes. Poor little thing was trying to escape. Chaps these days have no sense of sportsmanship"

Not to mention that the last time I knew hunting from your car was illegal, not only do you get fined, loose your hunting license but the DNR also takes your gun. Canned hunts are like going into a petting zoo and shooting the animals in the zoo. Or fishing at sea world, its not hunting, its just killing animals for pleasure. Btw, most canned hunters rarely eat the animals they kill, the just want trophies.

[Lady Neeva]

Originally Posted by robbiev

In a crude way, it's sort of like paying for hookers, then bragging about your prowess in picking up women.

Essentially that's exactly what it is -- it's like anything else in life where you can buy your way to the top.

Would have posted earlier, but we got a late night thunderstorm here and my dog decided I wasn't allowed to leave the livingroom all night.

Anyways, it's cheating. And the only people doing it are the bored rich (it's also quite expensive) who take maybe the head and hide to hang on the wall for bragging rights and leave the rest to rot. It's wasteful.

You don't even necessarily have to be hunting for survival, as long as you USE the animal and try for a quick, clean kill. Usually that involves a head or heart shot... both of which effectively ruin the "trophy", so participants in canned hunts tend to aim for spots like the stomach where the bullet won't do much damage to the "trophy" but the animal still dies. Eventually. Usually from blood loss. Usually in extreme pain.

Basically, it just lacks class. For real hunters, it's more about the chase than the kill... my Father way back when, when he could still hunt, would usually let the older "trophy" bucks walk past in favor of a younger, smaller (tenderer, more delicious) animal.

And in some species, particularly whitetailed deer, the hunters serve a useful purpose for the herd as a whole in thinning out the numbers. I'm sure if deer could think, they would prefer a quick well placed bullet from a skilled hunter over death by starvation or getting hit by a car and dying of a broken leg a week later.

[robbiev]

Originally Posted by mrcheerful

...not only do you get fined, loose your hunting license but the DNR also takes your gun.

They can also take your vehicle (perhaps, depending on the circumstances). I know two people that were caught and lost their vehicles.

[snopes]

Originally Posted by robbiev

In a crude way, it's sort of like paying for hookers, then bragging about your prowess in picking up women.

Frankly, I'd say that comparison applies to any form of hunting in which a person with a bow or a gun goes up against an (unarmed) animal and then brags about his prowess in killing.

- snopes

[robbiev]

Originally Posted by snopes

Frankly, I'd say that comparison applies to any form of hunting in which a person with a bow or a gun goes up against an (unarmed) animal and then brags about his prowess in killing.

- snopes

I'd agree. I'm "into guns" so everybody assumes I like to hunt. Frankly, I find it boring. Get up at 3 in the morning; sit in a deer stand until you see a deer; pull trigger; bitch because you missed. ***yawn***

[Towknie]

Originally Posted by robbiev

In a crude way, it's sort of like paying for hookers, then bragging about your prowess in picking up women.

But they all said I was hot and studly! Of course they meant it, and I believe it!

[robbiev]

Originally Posted by Towknie

But they all said I was hot and studly! Of course they meant it, and I believe it!

Yeah...that's the same thing I tried to tell them.

[llewtrah]

Originally Posted by Pseudo_Croat

Pardon me for being naive (again), but what's so despicable about canned hunts? Why is better that one has a chance of not bagging anything than a guarantee of bagging something?

Sigh. Because in normal hunting the animal has a chance of getting away and not being killed. In canned hunting it has been caught once, drugged or caged so it can't run away and is a sitting target for some jerk to to indulge his blood lust.

And in canned hunts, because the animal is in an enclosure or can't escape, hunters can shoot it lots of times just for fun without killing it.

Did you even bother to put "canned hunt" into Google or look on Wikipedia? Or do you just like getting other Snopesters to do the not-so-hard work for you? Because you can look up descriptions and opinions on the web instead of asking every time.

Canned Hunt

[MasterTypoDemon]

The way I understood it, the webcam hunting 'experiance' was set up primarily aimed at the elderly, the handicapped, and/or the hunters who couldn't actually make it to the outdoors (people living in big cities for example). Not just any 'redneck geek' with $19.99.

I also understood that in the event that you actually bag a kill, someone would go out and bring it back in, skin it, and have the meat cut up and sent to you for a price.

Having been disabled since the age of 5 and have worked with disabled of all types, I have yet to hear one say they were upset they couldn't go out and kiil an animal. My father who is in his 70's had to stop hunting a number of years ago and I can tell you for a fact that canned or internet hunting wouldn't please him nor would he ever think of using either. I don't know of any true sportsman that would agree with this type of killing. Trust me, if a disabled person wanted to hunt he/she would figure out a way to do it. I know how I am and I am not all that special when it comes to doing things I want or need to do.