California to ban internet-based hunting

SAN FRANCISCO - California state senators have approved a bill that would ban hunters from killing animals over the Internet.

Hunters may now stalk prey online at www.live-shot.com, a Web site linking firearms and cameras so customers can point, click and shoot antelope, sheep and wild hogs on a Texas ranch from thousands of miles away.

Live-shot.com is the only Web site of its kind and California lawmakers voted 25 to 6 to deter imitators.

"It's an over the top, pay-per-view video game using live animals for target practice that ought to be banned from coast-to-coast," said senator Debra Bowen, the bill's author.

"Pay-per-view hunting doesn't meet any definition of 'sporting' that I've ever heard because there's nothing 'sporting' about sitting at your computer in your pajamas, using your mouse to shoot at hogs or antelope or any other animal that's halfway across the country," Bowen said.

Her bill bars remote hunting in California and would ban anyone from operating a hunting Web site in the state.

The bill would also ban the import of animals into California killed over a remote hunting Web site, and violators would face up to six months in jail and fines of up to $US1000 ($NZ1389).

The operator of live-shot.com was not immediately available for comment, but customer Dale Hagberg of Ligonier, Indiana, who is paralysed from the neck down, defended the Web site and criticised California lawmakers.

"They don't realise who the site is for. It's designed to help people like me, not just lazy hunters," said Hagberg, who plans to use the Web site again after an initial and unsuccessful hunt.

Bowen's bill now goes to California's Assembly. Fourteen other states are discussing similar bans and a federal bill would outlaw Internet-based hunting across the United States.

California lawmakers in recent years have taken up a number of animal-friendly bills, including legislation aimed at stopping foie gras production, sharply limiting the practice of cropping dogs' ears and legalising ferret ownership.

- REUTERS