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A Texas businessman who wanted to allow computer users to kill from the comfort of their homes has instead spawned dozens of state laws banning the practice.

Texas legislators shut down San Antonio businessman John Lockwood's operation in 2005, and two dozen other states have since banned Internet hunting, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

Connecticut is now considering whether to follow suit and ban state residents from using a computer mouse to point, click and kill penned animals herded before a Web-based camera.

Though Mr. Lockwood's operation has been shut down and lawmakers do not know of any others, backers of the bill say they want to prevent even the possibility of another such Internet venture.

“It's not a big problem that we know of,” state Senator Bill Finch, co-chairman of the General Assembly's Environment Committee, said. “We want to nip it in the bud. It's a pretty gruesome practice.”

The bill would forbid the operation, sale or use of computer software or service that allows a hunter “when not physically present, to remotely control a firearm or weapon to hunt a live animal or bird.”

Internet hunting became an issue two years ago when Mr. Lockwood established a site in Rocksprings, Texas, where hunters could shoot boar, sheep and other animals using the Internet and a Webcam.

Mr. Lockwood, 42, said in an interview that he was trying to help disabled hunters when he set aside the Rocksprings site and linked a rifle to a digital camera and high-speed Web connection.

“Wouldn't this be great for people to hunt who aren't able to hunt?” he said. “I'm not going to limit it to the handicapped, because it's not my place to say who can and cannot do it. But people got all bent out of shape.”

In response to his enterprise, Texas banned Internet hunting two years ago because of concerns that Web hunters would skirt state law requiring a hunting licence, said David Sinclair, chief of wildlife enforcement at the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.

“If someone in New York City is online, it's hard for us to check their licence,” he said.

The Humane Society of the United States has lobbied state legislatures and is now busy in Connecticut, hoping the state will become the 26th to ban Internet hunting – called "canned hunting" by animal activists.

“Half the country is open to these people,” said Michael Markarian, executive vice president of the Humane Society in Washington, D.C. “We believe that sick ideas have a bad way of spreading. We want to make sure this pay-per-view slaughter doesn't happen.”

The Humane Society also is lobbying Congress for a nationwide ban.