Hunters Shoot Down Drone of Animal Rights Group

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Hunters Shoot Down Drone of Animal Rights Group

Posted by Unknown on Monday February 20, 2012 @10:10PM from the thought-it-was-a-cyber-pigeon dept.

Required Snark writes "A remote control drone operated by an animal rights group was shot down in South Carolina by a group of thwarted hunters. Steve Hindi, the group president 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.' After the shoot was halted, the drone was launched anyway, and at this point it was shot down. '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.' '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."

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Re:Animal Rights? by Richard_at_work · 2012-02-20 22:47 · Score: 5, Informative

PETA is currently trying to get the 13th amendment to be applied in the case of five killer whales held by SeaWorld.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16920866
Yes, PETA is trying to get antislavery law to be applied against animals, which if successful will seriously change everything...
Re:If they hadn't brought their drone by rhook · 2012-02-20 22:54 · Score: 5, Informative

#6 Birdshot fired out of a 12 gauge has a maximum effective range of around 40 yards, when shooting birds. I can guarantee there was no danger posed to anyone on that highway, the birdshot never even got close.
As opposed to clay pigeons by Sycraft-fu · 2012-02-20 23:09 · Score: 5, Informative

Usually when people shoot in any sort of practice or competition, it is with clay pigeons. They are just little clay discs that fly pretty well, and shatter very nicely when hit with a shotgun blast. For a live pigeon shoot one would assume they would be using real pigeons.
Youtube video. by Whiney+Mac+Fanboy · 2012-02-20 23:12 · Score: 5, Informative

(unexciting) Youtube video of the shootdown can be found on the SHARK youtube channel.
Doesn't look like they were trespassing.

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1. Re:Youtube video. by Gideon+Wells · 2012-02-21 00:03 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Trespassing needn't apply.
  There is an expectation of privacy on your own property. Just where the line is drawn can be iffy at times. In my media law course this was called the tree principle.
  1) You are allowed to take a photo of a person from the sidewalk (public property) if they are in their yard or even through the window with a normal lens. Nothing different than what anyone else could see.
  2) Zoom lens, pushing the expectation of public view if they are inside and you are looking through a window.
  3) Climbing a tree in the public area to get a better view through the second story with a zoom lens? You might be able to argue it, but don't be surprised when a cop comes looking for you.
  At least that is sort of the old standards. Tabloids and public figures are able to push this all to whole different realms than with private citizens/groups. This is a drone, part of the new paradigm. Being an airborne camera/vehicle that can see farther, it has a whole different standard of "public" than a person with a SLR by its very nature. So does someone in a glider, gyro-copter, helicopter, etc.
  Expect a lawsuit eventually over whether drones in private hands should count more towards the person in the tree standards or filming from public air space in helicopter standards.
  
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  by Anonymous Coward: I, for one, welcome the shift from car analogies to pizza analogies. um.. overlords?
Re:If they hadn't brought their drone by Lumpy · 2012-02-20 23:25 · Score: 5, Informative

you are wrong as nobody would be able to fly private aircraft and hot air balloons.
And yes I know this, I was a private pilot. I'm not tresspassing until I am below the tree line.

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Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
Re:Go see the video of the event by Attila+Dimedici · 2012-02-21 01:09 · Score: 5, Informative

Their gun permits should be revoked,...
What gun permits are you talking about? Is there any reason to believe that any of these people had concealed carry permits? These were not concealed carry weapons. South Carolina is one of those states that still believes in the Second Amendment. There is no permit necessary to own and/or carry a shotgun in South Carolina.

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The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted. James Madison
Re:If they hadn't brought their drone by bigpresh · 2012-02-21 01:22 · Score: 5, Informative

Given that the article says it crashed onto the highway, and helicopters aren't known for gliding, I'd say they were on top of the highway.
Their video shows the drone flying away from the highway, then returning towards the highway presumably after it was shot at; around 2:15 in the video, it looks like it took some damage to one of the rotors, so it was perhaps damaged enough to no longer maintain altitude, but not enough to prevent them bringing it back under some control.