Another disgusting story about hunters--now you can kill a real, live animal from the comfort of your computer screen, even if you are totally paralyzed:
High-tech hunting: Site lets you shoot game from home
March 7, 2005
BY JAY ROOT
FT. WORTH STAR-TELEGRAM
BOERNE, Texas -- 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 was a lot of anticipation. My heart was pumping," Giles recalled. "I felt like I was there."
Welcome to the controversial union of modern technology and game hunting. It's called Live-Shot.com, and it's operated by San Antonio body-shop estimator John Lockwood. The Web site allows anyone with Internet access and a mouse to hunt and target shoot by remote control, all in real time.
For Lockwood, it's a way to open up hunting to people who can't or won't walk into the woods with a shotgun or rifle.
But for critics, including Texas state Rep. Todd Smith, R-Euless, it's unnatural, unfair and immoral. Smith has every intention of making it illegal, too.
"I don't believe we should be able to kill God's creatures with the click of a mouse," said Smith, who has introduced legislation to ban remote-controlled hunting. "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."
Legislators in other states are also introducing legislation to stop the practice before it takes off.
Lockwood is the first to admit that Internet hunting is not for everybody. In fact, he said, he's not interested in it himself because he prefers the outdoor experience and the thrill that only in-person hunting can produce.
Yet, there are some people who can't -- or won't -- brave the elements but who still crave a hunting experience, he said. And whether they're disabled, in a hunt-free foreign country or just curious beginners, Lockwood said, they should be able to use his site. He can't understand why so many people are so opposed to what he is offering.
He said he frequently gets profanity-laced e-mail. People tell him he's sick or "off his rocker" or that he's violating the laws of nature.
Lockwood insists that what he's doing is not all that different from the standard guided hunt.
He notes there's always a person in the blind to ensure safety. A Texas hunting license, obtainable over the Internet, is required. And Lockwood is standing by with his own rifle in case the one controlled by remote doesn't do the job.
"We're just having the animals come to us instead of going out and tracking them," he said. "They're not penned up. They're just as free-ranging as on any other ranch."
The system is deceptively simple, contained in an 8-foot-by-12-foot wooden trailer on a 220-acre ranch about 15 miles east of Boerne. Sitting on a folding banquet table inside is an assortment of computer equipment.
Wires from the computer snake over to a pan-tilt motor, a wide-angle camera and, atop metal brackets, a Ruger .22-caliber rifle fitted with a scope and a 10-round clip. The smaller caliber rifle is used for target shooting.
On one Saturday, the Ruger was pointing toward a target gallery -- balloons, tiny metal sheep and the like -- about 30 yards away.
Suddenly, the motor whirred into action, lifting the rifle slightly upward and to the left. On the adjacent computer screen, the camera brought a bright-yellow balloon into the scope's crosshairs.
A loud whack erupted from the gun barrel, and a balloon pop could be heard in the distance. The gun moved again to the right, fixed on another target and fired again. Another hit.
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.
"I'm excited and nervous," he said of the upcoming hunt, speaking in short bursts through a respirator and relying on a nurse to relay his comments over the phone. "I'm not sure I'll be able to get aimed at the animal before it moves away, so I'll have to wait and see what happens."
More than 350 people -- from places as far flung as Hong Kong, France and Peru -- have already signed up as members of Live-Shot.com. They pay $14.95 a month and $5.95 each time they fire off up to 10 rounds of ammunition at inanimate targets.
The hunting is extra: It costs $300 for 2 hours and $75 for an additional hour. Meat processing, shipping and taxidermy costs are not included and can cost hundreds more.
Only exotic or imported game is stalked. Lockwood settled on that approach because regulations for native species -- like white-tail deer -- in many cases require the hunter to physically attach a tag to the animal before it's moved, he said.
And as it turns out, the state Parks and Wildlife Department, worried that remote-controlled hunting could get out of hand, has issued a proposed regulation banning the practice for native game animals. Smith's legislation would prohibit it altogether.
Giles got to do the first hunt on Jan. 29 because he's a friend and coworker of Live-Shot.com's owner. A Boerne native who grew up hunting along the banks of the Guadalupe River, Giles has killed hogs with guns and arrows. Doing it with a remote-controlled 30.06 from 45 miles away, he said, was a lot harder than he thought it would be because cameras and swivel motors afford the hunter only so much vision and motion, he said.
"I thought it was going to be more like a video game," Giles said. "It was nothing like I figured it would be."
Giles said that when the hog appeared on his computer screen, he felt a rush. When he finally did click the "fire" button, the hog was hit in the neck, but it wasn't enough to take him out. It would take another two shots from Lockwood's rifle before the hog went down for good.
"I don't know how people are going to feel toward it," Giles said. "But by all means, it's a real hunting experience."
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