Senator wants to ban e-hunt

Utah may join a series of states that have prohibited one of the most controversial services ever offered through the Internet: computer-controlled, remote hunting.

In 2005, a Texas hunting ranch offered customers such a service. Texas and several other states quickly banned the practice.

Sen. Mike Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, is determined to make sure that no Utah location will be used for remote hunting. So far, that hasn't happened in the state.

"We're just getting ahead of the curve to see that it doesn't happen here," he said. "It seems very unsportsmanlike to me, to go out and shoot your elk or whatever, without leaving your computer terminal."

Waddoups described how remote hunting could work: "You toggle back and forth (on the computer) until you get your gun set up." Somebody at a hunting farm herds a game animal toward the site where the gun is aimed. The hunter clicks a mouse and, possibly thousands of miles away, the rifle fires and the target falls.

"Somebody goes out and cleans up for you and you never go out of your house," he said.

The wording of his bill is being finalized, and public hearings will be held in January.

So far, hunters he has contacted are in favor of the bill. "I haven't found a soul that's objecting to it yet," Waddoups said.

He used to be a hunter and would never consider a killing an animal via remote control. Besides, he said, half of the advantage of hunting is "you get the exercise."