Virtual Hunting on The Internet

An American man with a penchant for shooting things has come up with the world's first website that lets you hunt and shoot real animals on his Texas-based ranch, but without having to leave the comfort of your home computer keyboard. Visitors can log in to the site and control a gun mounted on a platform overlooking the 330-acre ranch. Kills are retrieved by an attendant and sent off to the butcher or taxidermist. John Underwood, the brain behind the site, got the idea after looking at another website in which cameras posted in the wild enable you to snap photos of animals, "then a lightbulb went off in my head," he said. Texas officials are currently looking into the legality of such a venture "current state statutes don't cover this sort of thing", said Mike Berger, director of the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.