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Drones Need to Stop Harassing Hunters, Says Alabama Lawmaker

We've all heard about the rise of eco drones, but this is something else.
Photo: Ville Hyvönen/Flickr

We've all heard about the rise of eco drones, but this is something else: In Alabama, the use of drones to harass hunters has apparently become such a problem that a state senator has drafted legislation to explicitly bar such activities.

State Sen. Roger Bedford, a Democrat, wrote the bill despite harassment of hunters already being illegal in Alabama. As he explains in a a draft of bill SB 240, "Existing law prohibits a person from willfully and knowingly preventing, obstructing, impeding, disturbing, or interfering with another person who is legally hunting or fishing. This bill would specifically include the use of drones to harass a person who is hunting or fishing within this prohibition."

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Why is such explicit language necessary? "It’s apparently a growing problem,” Bedford told the Times-Daily last week. “As a lifelong hunter and fisherman, I think if someone is out in the woods or on the water, they have a right to be there without being harassed."

It's a sentiment that any hunter could agree with ("As a hunter I certainly don’t want a drone flying overhead," wrote Eric Mason on ALDucks.com), as could just about anyone spending time outside. Who wants to go for a walk while a drone buzzes overhead?

PETA's pestering drones at work

But it's hunters, not walkers, that have been the target of drone pestering. Earlier this year, Illinois also banned the use of drones to harass hunters in response to a PETA drone initiative announced last April. The initiative, which used drones PETA refers to as Air Angels, was aimed at "patrolling the skies [last] fall, capturing footage of hunters engaging in cruel and/or illegal activities."

Naturally, the plan caught the ire of hunters who'd rather not have drones zipping around and scaring off game. And while Illinois and Alabama legislators are fighting back with their pens, some sites like Ammoland have advocated a more direct approach, writing, "Sounds to me like this will create a whole new shooting sport. 'PETA Drone Target Shooting.'" Noted drone shooting advocate Philip Steel is surely on board.

Oddly enough, it's not the only controversy between drones and hunters floating around. Drones are being been used by hunters in the search for game, which has received pushback from wildlife experts and some hunting advocates, who feel drones take the skill out of the sport.

As Paul Smith, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel's outdoors editor, argues in an op-ed, the use of drones poses a "special threat to outdoors ethics." Of particular interest to the proposed drone ban in Alabama: Smith also notes that the use of drones to hunt or harass hunters are both illegal in Wisconsin, but that hasn't stopped people from doing so.

@derektmead