Activists Angered by Coyote Hunting Computer Game

The other day someone posted a complaint to an animal rights e-mail list asking people to “protest this sick Windows game” called “3D Helicopter Coyote Hunter.” Currently animal rights activists and others are putting heat on the U.S. Wildlife Service which kills coyotes using helicopters in an attempt to control coyote populations (aside from the objections of the animal rights activists, there are also concerns about the safety of hunting by helicopter).

The game, produced by Cosmi Corporation, lets the user “Hop into the pilot’s seat of a new, 3 dimensional, super-futuristic helicopter equipped with highly advanced coyote seeking radar. …As fly through the array of 20 missions, you’re armed with the best weapons available: an ultra-fast rifle, powerful shotgun, flame thrower and an electronic ray gun. Use these weapons to save the farms before they are overrun by vicious coyotes; but remember, your fuel, ammunition and time are limited.”

Just based on the description, it sounds like a pretty lousy game (and I left out the part that mentions having to shoot “vampire coyotes”!), but then again the computer game market isn’t exactly a place where quality control rules the roost at the moment. But sick? might fell that way if waste $20 on this game, but otherwise just more histrionics from animal rights activists.

For those who want to judge for themselves, a demo version of the game is available on Cosmi’s web site at:

http://www.cosmi.com/coyote/coyotedemo.htm

Source:

Cosmi 3D Helicopter Hunt. Cosmi Corporation web page, June 27, 2000. http://www.cosmi.com/coyote/coyotedemo.htm.

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