• by April 26, 2005

From the cruel and unusual files, comes a report from California that state legislators approved a bill to ban Internet-based hunting. The lawmakers voted 25 to six to ban the practice.

Hunting on the Web. Say what?

Yes, California state senators approved a bill that would ban hunters from killing Bambi and any other animals via the Web. Again, we ask, how does one hunt over the Internet? Evidently the Web site www.live-shot.com connects weapons and cameras to allow people to simply point, click, and shoot at animals on a ranch in Texas. The animals aren't avatars, they're real animals.

"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," Sen. Debra Bowen, the bill's author, told Reuters.

The bill prohibits remote hunting in California and anyone who wants to run a hunting site in the state. The proposed bill would also ban importing animals to California that were killed over a remote hunting Web site.

More than a dozen states are mulling similar legislation.