Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Legality of Bambi events questioned

Las Vegas city officials are investigating the legality of a company that says it allows "the ultimate sportsman" to stalk naked women through the sagebrush, chase them down and shoot them with paintballs.

The hunts have been also denounced as demeaning and doubted as a possible hoax.

Real Men Outdoor Productions, the company that organizes the so-called Hunting for Bambi events and sells videos of them, is permitted to sell only hunting videos, but Jim DiFiore, Las Vegas business services manager, said the business is clearly adult-oriented.

"What they have is a license for the sale of videos of hunting," DiFiore said. "The exposure of ladies' private parts is considered a nude show or a nude act, and it's considered a sexually oriented business," which calls for different zoning and licensing regulations.

But Michael Burdick, described as the man behind the concept, told the Sun that nothing the business does is pornographic, and that the hunts are conducted on private property in three different locations. One is in Clark County, he said, but refused to say where.

"We are selling videos, but there are no sexual acts involved," he said. "Because someone is naked on it doesn't mean it's pornography."

The city isn't alone in its concern over Hunting For Bambi.

Women's groups and a company that manufactures paintball equipment are denouncing the concept, while researchers at a well-known urban legends website say the operation is likely a publicity stunt designed to sell videotapes.

Burdick defended the hunts, saying they are real.

Rumors of a hoax "is just another news angle that people can run with," he said.

He said that initially the intention of the company was to sell posed videos of men pretending to hunt naked women. The company's website, huntingforbambi.com, describes the video as "one of the sickest and most shocking videos ever made."

The videos, which sell for $19.95, became so popular, Burdick said, that men began asking for an opportunity to participate in an actual "hunt."

Women also inundated Burdick with requests to be hunted, he said.

"We did our Web thing, then we got a ton of e-mails from women saying, 'Oh my God, I want to be in your video,"' he said. "We just got slammed. It got nuts."

The women are paid $2,500 if they aren't hit by a paintball and $1,000 if they are hit.

A private hunt costs participants $10,000, according to the site, and includes round-trip airfare, lodging for three days and four nights, meals, the hunt, a video of it and a video wall image.

The website also hints that sex may be involved with the "hunts." On Wednesday morning one of the links on the website showed suggestive photographs of "some of the hottest female escorts in Vegas" who are available for private bookings through the site.

But by Wednesday night the language was toned down, saying that women in the photos were the women whom men could choose to hunt down.

Sorting out who is running the company is one of the tasks the city is tackling, DiFiore said.

Burdick has appeared on many national news programs this week defending the concept of Hunting for Bambi, and has been identified as the proprietor of the company.

While Burdick is speaking as proprietor of the company, the application for a Nevada business license, dated June 12, says Lakana Campbell, 48, is the full owner. Under the number of employees, it says "self." Burdick said Campbell is his "wife-to-be."

Under a section asking the applicant to describe the business, it says "Video sales -- Internet-sold VHS and DVD videos of hunting nature. No porn videos."

DiFiore said his department's investigation began Tuesday and stemmed from a story broadcast last week on a local television news show, KLAS Channel 8.

"The names (on the news show) do not tie in with the names on any of the licensing records we have," he said. "We want to try to find out if (the company is) masking something, and we're trying to determine who is behind the operation."

The address listed for Real Men Productions is a four-bedroom home in the Lone Mountain area, near the Las Vegas Beltway and Cheyenne Avenue. The Clark County assessor lists Campbell as the owner, and Burdick lives there, according to records.

That address corresponds with another registered Las Vegas company, Clean Your Carpets Inc., whose corporate license was revoked last year.

There are also questions as to where the "hunts" are taking place. Burdick said 20 hunts have taken place so far, and two are scheduled for this weekend.

According to the Nevada secretary of state, Real Men Outdoor Productions is registered to operate only in Las Vegas.

Asked if any of the hunts take place in Nye County, where prostitution is legal, Burdick declined to answer the question directly, saying only that they take place at three different locations in Nevada on private property.

Brass Eagle Inc., an Arkansas-based company that manufactures paintball equipment, has asked Metro Police and the city attorney's office to look into Hunting For Bambi, "as the health and welfare of the women participants could be damaged or threatened," spokesman Charles Prudhomme said.

The company is concerned that intentionally shooting at people who aren't wearing masks or clothing could cause serious eye and bodily injuries, he said.

The paintball guns have been modified to make the shots less painful for the women, Burdick said. The paintballs have a velocity of 140 feet per second.

The concept is also drawing fire from women's advocates. Lisa Lynn Chapman, spokeswoman for Safe Nest, a Las Vegas shelter for victims of domestic violence, said the concept is "disturbing."

"Our biggest concern here with this website and the hunts is this culturally reinforces violence against women," Chapman said. "They're saying it's all in good fun, let's treat someone like less than human, let's treat someone like an animal."

But not everyone believes these "hunts" are really taking place.

While Burdick defended the concept, saying he's "not in this for the controversy or to hype the sale of videos," researchers at the website snopes.com, dubbed The Urban Legends Reference Pages, believe the concept is probably a hoax.

The site points out that paintball is a potentially dangerous sport requiring full protective gear, and letting women get shot at by paintballs carries the potential for a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, even if the women participating sign waivers.

It also says that like other Internet-based business hoaxes, the Hunting for Bambi site displays a curious lack of contact information. No business address or phone number can be found on the site, and several readers of the urban legends site reported that they tried to book a "hunt" but received no response.

"Those are rather odd business practices for a legitimate company looking to book customers at $10,000 a pop," the site states.

archive