Animal rights group says drone shot down
Animal rights group SHARK said a remote-controlled aircraft like this one was shot down near Ehrhardt. It planned to use the drone to video live pigeon shoots at the privately owned Broxton Bridge Plantation.
SHARK says this video shows its drone being shot down during the pigeon shoot in Ehrhardt. Watch the footage.
A remote-controlled aircraft owned by an animal rights group was reportedly shot down near Broxton Bridge Plantation Sunday near Ehrhardt, S.C.
Steve Hindi, president of SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness), said his group was preparing to launch its Mikrokopter drone to video what he called a live pigeon shoot on Sunday when law enforcement officers and an attorney claiming to represent the privately-owned plantation near Ehrhardt tried to stop the aircraft from flying.
“It didn’t work; what SHARK was doing was perfectly legal,” Hindi said in a news release. “Once they knew nothing was going to stop us, the shooting stopped and the cars lined up to leave.”
He said the animal rights group decided to send the drone up anyway.
“Seconds after it hit the air, numerous shots rang out,” Hindi said in the release. “As an act of revenge for us shutting down the pigeon slaughter, they had shot down our copter.”
He claimed the shooters were “in tree cover” and “fled the scene on small motorized vehicles.”
“It is important to note how dangerous this was, as they were shooting toward and into a well-travelled highway,” Hindi stated in the release. He said someone from SHARK called the Colleton County Sheriff’s Department, which took a report of the incident.
The Colleton County Sheriff’s Department filed a malicious damage to property incident report.
According to the report, Hindi told the responding deputy the group’s remote-controlled aircraft “was hovering over U.S. 601 when he heard a shot come from the wood line. The shot sounded to him that it was of small caliber.”
The incident report went on to state that “once shot, the helicopter lost lift and crash landed on the roadway of U.S. 601.”
The deputy noted in the report that he was unable to speak to anyone at Broxton Bridge Plantation following the incident.
Hindi estimated damage to the drone at around $200 to $300.
Hindi said he will seek charges against those who shot down the drone.
“This was SHARK’s first encounter with the Broxton Bridge Plantation, but it will certainly not be the last,” Hindi said in the release. “We are already making plans for a considerably upscaled action in 2013.”
Animal rights group says drone shot down.
http://media.vmixcore.com/core-flash/UnifiedVideoPlayer/UnifiedVideoPlayer.swf
Related articles
- Hunters Shoot Down Drone of Animal Rights Group (idle.slashdot.org)
- Not very smart, these animal “rights” types (samizdata.net)
- Animal Rights Group’s Flying Surveillance Drone Is Shot Down By Bird Hunters (dreamindemon.com)
- Hunters Shoot Animal Rights Drone Out of the Sky [Drones] (gizmodo.com)
- Hunters Shoot Animal Rights Drone Out Of The Sky (gizmodo.com.au)
- Drones, Privacy, and Air Rights (volokh.com)
- The Howling Football Draws Attention To Dog Slaughter (fastcocreate.com)
- Animal Rights Group Wants Highway Memorial For Dead Cows (chicago.cbslocal.com)
- Animal rights group’s video sparks search of North Carolina turkey farm (cnn.com)
- Animals Rights Group Wants To Give Foie Gras-Hungry Anthony Bourdain Liver Exam (sfist.com)
