Ridiculous Internet Hunting Banned in Rhode Island

Yes, as we’ve posted before, this actually exists. And, as it sounds, people actually shoot from a computer. Lazy is the first word that comes to mind. Many others follow. Luckily, this ban now makes 22 states.

Article:

Internet hunting, a 'shooting gallery,' banned in R.I.

http://www.projo.com/news/content/
projo_20060724_24hunt.154fb4c.html

Animals are trapped in a pen that has a camera and rifle nearby. Computer users click their mouse to make the gun fire.

01:00 AM EDT on Monday, July 24, 2006

BY BENJAMIN N. GEDAN

Journal Staff Writer

Don't put away your camouflage or faux moose antlers yet.

The General Assembly, joining a growing national movement, has banned Internet hunting, prohibiting the shooting of live animals by computer users remotely operating a digital camera, live ammunition and a rifle positioned on a ranch.

The Humane Society of the United States has called the practice the "latest fad in Internet animal cruelty" and is vigorously campaigning to stamp it out. But the activity is so rare that even the chief sponsor of the Rhode Island legislation concedes it might never have occurred in the state.

Many avid hunters have not heard of the activity. Under pressure from groups nationwide, the only company known to have sponsored an online hunt, LIVE-SHOT, has replaced captive deer with silhouettes of Osama bin Laden posted on a Texas ranch, fired on by .22-caliber rounds. The Web site no longer exists.

The bill's sponsor, Rep. Raymond C. Church, D-North Smithfield, says he learned of the practice from a volunteer at a local animal shelter. "I thought she was confused. I thought this was a video game," he said. "I was flabbergasted."

Joseph C. Castellone, who operates Cranston Firearms, travels to Maine and New Hampshire to shoot deer. He said he never knew he could bag a deer using a laptop in his living room.

"This is the first time I've heard of it," he said recently. "What will they think of next on the computer?"

Still, animal rights advocates are celebrating the legislative victory, calling Internet hunting a barbaric practice that now will never take hold in Rhode Island.

The campaign against Internet hunting began in earnest early last year when a Texas entrepreneur named John Lockwood set up LIVE-SHOT, charging a $14.95 monthly membership fee for the chance to discharge a Remington rifle using a computer mouse.

The ranch that hosted Lockwood's business, outside San Antonio, immediately became a symbol of high-tech cruelty to animals.

The few hunts that took place via the Web spawned a rare alliance of animal rights groups and hunters, who called it a violation of hunting ethics and fair play. Fifteen months later, Internet hunting, a previously unheard of pastime, has been made illegal in at least 22 states, including Maine, New Hampshire and Texas.

In Rhode Island, the House voted June 22 to ban remote-control hunting. The Senate concurred two days later. The bill became law July 14 without Governor Carcieri's signature.

"This could happen in a lot of states overnight. It's very easy to set up," said Dennis Tabella, director of Defenders of Animals, who testified in favor of the bill.

The Internet makes it impossible to enforce state hunting rules, including restrictions on children and criminals, and hunters cannot be sure injured animals are not left to slowly bleed to death, he said.

The animals are lured by food toward a pen. With a mounted rifle nearby it is slain via a computer joystick. Later, the animal's head arrives by mail and the trophy is mounted in the home of a hunter whose chase began and ended in a cushioned, swivel chair.

Church likens it to a "shooting gallery." Katenna Jones, an animal behaviorist at the Rhode Island Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, calls it "appalling."

Maine and Vermont banned Internet hunting last year. In April, it became illegal in New Hampshire. This month, the staff at the New England office of The Humane Society plotted strategies for promoting a ban in Massachusetts.

In April, U.S. Rep. Thomas M. Davis III, R-Va., submitted legislation to ban Internet hunting nationwide.

"A lot of legislators will stay very far way from any hunter bills. But this is an issue many hunters oppose as well," said Joanne Bourbeau, the New England regional director for The Humane Society. "They want to stop this practice dead in its tracks, pardon the pun."

In Rhode Island, only three lawmakers opposed the bill. Sen. Daniel DaPonte, D-East Providence, said he thought the legislation sought to ban a video game. Sen. Joseph M. Polisena, D-Johnston, opposed it. Rep. Nicholas Gorham, R-Coventry, said enforcing the law would require monitoring Web usage and dispatching detectives to distant prairies.

"How are we ever going to determine what they were shooting at, where it was and whether they hit it?" he asked. "What is the crime in Rhode Island?"

But his vote was the sole nay in the House and it carried no support from the state's major gun-rights group.

Donn C. DiBiasio, secretary of the Rhode Island State Rifle and Revolver Association, said the bill was unnecessary and pushed by people hostile to all hunting. "It's not needed," he said, "but we get the anti-hunters up in arms ready to make a national statement."

But after winning some concessions, the group, an affiliate of the National Rifle Association, opted not to fight to preserve remote controlled hunting.