They are called "canned hunts," but by any name they are slaughter, not sport, with no vestige of a fair contest between man and beast. In pursuit of a trophy to hang on the wall or a videotape of their exploits, well-to-do hunters in the U.S. are paying thousands of dollars to shoot defenseless exotic animals at point-blank range. There is no accurate count of the number of such killings, but authorities are finally beginning to crack down on them.
Floyd Lester Patterson III, a rancher in Monterey County, Calif., was charged in April with 27 misdemeanors involving illegal possession and...