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47 °F Forecast | Road Cams Thursday, December 9, 2004 Today's News | Classifieds | Autos | Homes | Jobs | Tempo | Health | Community | Home Delivery SECTIONS Home Page Local News Sports Business Obituaries Life Opinion - Politics Tempo AP News Weather Classified Archives Site Map SPECIAL SECTIONS Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Menu Guide How To Guide Wellness Connection Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Wedding Guide Passport to the Rogue Valley EXTRA Newspaper in Education Personals Movie Times TV Times E The People MARKETPLACE Find a Car Find a Home Find a Job Classifieds Place an ad eSouthernOregon Automotive Communities Entertainment Publications Recreation Calendar CUSTOMER SERVICE Frequent Questions Advertising Information Home Delivery Employment Contact Us Media Kit Network Affiliate Oregon Road Conditions & Cams Email Story to a Friend December 2, 2004 Hunting from your computer By MARK FREEMAN Mail Tribune People interested in shooting North Africa’s Barbary sheep or India’s blackbuck antelope can fly to a private ranch outside of San Antonio, Texas, for the experience. They can shoot their animal from a blind, have the meat cut and wrapped to take home or sent to an organization that feeds the needy. And the animal’s hide and horns could be mounted by a taxidermist and sent home to Oregon as well. Soon, you could choose to do the same thing by simply pointing and clicking on the computer without ever leaving your den. In a development thathunting organizations have labeled "disturbing," a San Antonio man plans to offer the shooting of exotic game animals at a Texas ranch over the Internet. For a yet-determined fee, cyber-shooters could soon log onto live-shot.com and use their keyboard and mouse to operate a zoom camera and rifle mounted in a blind. Advertisement The Web site currently offers target shooting with a camera, .22-caliber rifle and a computer. The web site says it is in the process of providing the "real time, online hunting and shooting experience." You control the gun. You activate the trigger with the same keystrokes used to write e-mails and balance checkbooks. "It’s pretty disturbing," says Mike Schweibert, a spokesman for Safari Club International, one of the world’s largest organizations defending hunters. SCI has denounced the concept as having nothing to do with legitimate hunting. Many of its members say they "are definitely opposed to the concept," Schweibert says, and SCI pledges to get this form of Internet use banned in Texas and elsewhere in the country. If so, then look for SCI to pay a visit to Oregon. Oregon currently has no such laws banning over-the-computer shooting of non-native, exotic creatures that are managed more like cattle by the Oregon Department of Agriculture. "We don’t have any authority to regulate that," says Ron Anglin, wildlife division administrator for the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "No hunting laws have foreseen anything like this, that you could be 3,000 miles away and physically shoot something," Anglin says. "It’s not hunting." But cyber-shooting is not illegal, even on public land while hunting big-game species like deer and elk. Oregon hunting rules require that the person who shoots a game animal have a valid hunting license and tag, and that the shooter tags the animal. It implies the legal hunter be present. But it’s not stated as a requirement. One law bans the loaning of tags. But the language doesn’t take into account circumstances where a person shoots an animal with what amounts to a remote-controlled rifle that is otherwise legal. And as long as the shooter’s tag is on the animal, the laws’ thresholds are met. "That doesn’t really fall in line with any definitions we use," says Lt. Walt Markee, who oversees wildlife enforcement for the Oregon State Police. "It doesn’t specify whether you’re there or how you do it." This cyber-shooting is the latest field where hunters and wildlife managers struggle with marrying technology with the traditions of fair chase. Two years ago, Oregon outlawed many mechanized decoys for hunting based on the premise that it’s creates an unfair advantage to the hunter. States like Oregon also have curbed new types of muzzle loaders, archery equipment and other forms of weaponry deemed to detract from the spirit of black powder or bow hunting. But this concept of not needing to be present to win represents one of the strangest ways computers can make the strangest ideas possible. "It’s bizarre," Markee says. "You have technology and ethics on a head-on collision." Hunters regularly speak passionately about why they take part in their sport. Routinely, it means taking an active part in the food chain, taking their own deer or elk for food. Often, hunters speak passionately and affectionately about the animals they kill and the intimate relationship that forever exists between the hunter and the hunted. Hunting, as is life, is no computer game. "Why would anybody want to do that?" says John Thiebes, a former ODFW biologist and field coordinator for the 11,000-member Oregon Hunters Association. "I go hunting to get away from civilization, not sit behind a desk and shoot something." E-mails left on live-shot.com’s information page seeking comment were not returned this week. Locally, hunters have resoundingly denounced the cyber-shooting concept. Many worry that even public discussions of some off-the-wall Internet opportunity gives legitimate hunters a black eye. "It’s not sportsman-like," Thiebes says. "It’s not hunting." However, like the video "game" that recreates President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, it’s there and available on the Internet. Both are proof that technology is only as good as its use. Reach reporter Mark Freeman at 776-4470, or e-mail [email protected] Mail Tribune Home Local News | Sports | Business | Obituaries | Life Opinion - Politics | AP News | Archives | Site Map E Southern Oregon | Classified Copyright © 1997-2004 Mail Tribune. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy | Terms & Conditions Website Feedback ADVERTISERS A D V E R T I S E R S SPECIAL SECTIONS Auto Finder Job Finder Home Finder Joy Magazine Homelife Magazine Tempo Readers' Choice Real Estate Showcase Since We Asked Outdoor Journal Moving to Southern Oregon? Volunteer Opportunities