Document text
52 °F Forecast | Road Cams Sunday, April 17, 2005 Today's News | Shop Our Valley | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery | Contact Us SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Health Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Real Estate Guide Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley SHOP OUR VALLEY AutoFinder HomeFinder JobFinder Classified Place an ad TOP JOBS EXTRA Ashland News NIE Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People Volunteer Moving here? eSouthernOregon CUSTOMER SERVICE FAQ's Advertise with us Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend April 15, 2005 Bills would outlaw cyber-hunting National and state legislation looks to end ability to hunt and kill animals via computers and across state lines By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune Quadriplegic Dale Hagberg spent nine hours last weekend in his Indiana home, staring at his computer screen and manipulating a joystick with his mouth in hopes of shooting an exotic antelope on a Texas ranch. Hagberg was cyber-hunting through the Web site live-shot.com, where visitors can pay a fee to use a series of computer-operated cameras and a rifle mounted in a blind to shoot animals that pass into range. A former hunter paralyzed from the chin down, Hagberg said this is the only way he can participate in the sport he loves. "My heart was really racing," Hagberg said in a telephone interview Thursday, with his nurse translating his barely audible speech. "It was a lot of fun, but very exhausting. It was better than I expected." Hagberg’s "hunt" would become a felony under a new bill introduced Tuesday in Congress meant to put an end to the point-and-click shooting of animals across state lines. Advertisement Rep. Tom Davis, R-VA., sponsored the bill, which mirrors similar intrastate bans now pending in Oregon and several state legislatures where language in hunting laws doesn’t specifically forbid remote-control hunting. The federal bill also calls for penalties of up to five years in federal prison. "The problem with things over the Internet is (states) can’t really enforce them," said Davis spokesman Robert White in Washington, D.C. "This bill creates some enforcement. And as for the five years — obviously there needs to be some sort of deterrent here." The state and federal bills are gaining broad support among sport-hunting organizations as well as animal-rights activists. "Killing an animal over the Internet, get it boxed up and shipped to you? In no way, shape or form is that hunting," said Jerod Broadfoot, a Safari Club International lobbyist pushing the Oregon Legislature for the ban here. "There’s no fair chase of an animal," Broadfoot said. "You’re not actually there to pull the trigger. I don’t think you’ll find a hunting organization in the world that supports it." Wayne Pacelle, CEO of the Humane Society of the United States, called live-shot.com "fundamentally at odds with animal-welfare and existing hunting practices." "You rarely have a case where the Humane Society and so many hunting organizations are in agreement," Pacelle said. "We generally believe the state should handle hunting-related issues," he said. "But I think it really requires congressional intervention as a necessary complement to what the states are doing." John Lockwood, the San Antonio resident who created live-shot.com, said the various state and federal bills unfairly target his Web site and are based on faulty assumptions. "It’s just amazing to me how somebody can fly off the handle and call for a ban on something they don’t even understand," Lockwood said. "They’ve never asked me how it works." Lockwood said the camera and rifle are in a blind near a feeding station on a 1,250-acre ranch. Lockwood said Hagberg was doing everything a hunter in the blind would do, except that he was several thousand miles away. "It’s not some slaughter pen," Lockwood said. "It’s not just logging on and shooting something." Lockwood said he was in the blind operating a safety on the gun during Hagberg’s nine hours online last weekend. Hagberg, who was the site’s first client, had three chances to shoot the black- buck antelope and a fallow deer, but he never took a shot, Lockwood said. "It had all the emotions of hunting," Lockwood said. "It was definitely exciting. My heart was beating. My hands were shaking." Hagberg was not charged for his online hunt last weekend, Lockwood said. However, Hagberg will be charged $1,250 if he logs on again and shoots the exotic antelope, which Lockwood said he purchased and released at the ranch for Hagberg. Hagberg said he hopes to try live-shot.com again and he wishes state and federal lawmakers would back off. "I think they shouldn’t get involved," Hagberg said. "This would help a lot of people who (lawmakers) aren’t considering." Oregon’s bill, called Senate Bill 389, would give the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission authority to develop rules concerning the shooting of animals over the Internet. It passed out of the Senate Committee on Environment and Land Use and is pending before the Oregon Senate, which Broadfoot said likely will consider a vote on it within a week. The bill would then go to the state House of Representatives. If adopted, it would require Gov. Ted Kulongoski’s signature to become law. "I can’t imagine this would be one the governor wouldn’t sign," said Ron Anglin, wildlife division administrator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife, which supports the bill. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home | Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life | Opinion AP News | Archives | Site Map | Community | Classified Copyright © 1997-2005 Mail Tribune, Inc. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions | Website Feedback Free Music Downloads Conference Calls - $50/Month Home Security Systems Trunks, Footlocker, Trunk, Footlockers home equity loans helzberg Distance Education Diamonds Online Poker Slippers Student Loans tcg student loan consolidation teleconferencing Memory Foam Mattress w2 forms Tatoo Tatoos Advertisement s