Tuesday, November 20, 2012

Wingnut Animal Rights Group Fights for Pigeons

Here's a legal question for you: If a private citizen flies a remote-controlled drone over your property (against your wishes) for the purpose of videotaping you and your guests doing something perfectly legal, do you have the right to shoot at it? Or can someone film you?

That is exactly what has been happening in an what has become an ongoing battle between the wingnut animal rights group SHARK (SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness) and folks who participate in live pigeon shoots. If you've never heard of SHARK, that's ok. These are the people who think that Greenpeace and PETA aren't extreme enough.

In early 2012, SHARK flew a drone over privately owned Broxton Bridge Plantation to film the pigeon shoot with their drone. As you might have guessed, flying a small helicopter over the heads of a bunch of folks with shotguns might not be such a great idea.

Undeterred, these wingnuts are still following the pigeon shooters all over the country. Just this past Sunday, SHARK flew their drone helicopter over privately owned land near Philadelphia, and guess what? It was shot down.

Here's the thing, y'all: People hunt birds all over the country. It's perfectly legal. I did it this past weekend. Some folks don't like it and want to stop it. The folks who are shooting live pigeons aren't exactly shooting an endangered species. Pigeons are about as abundant as any bird can be. I just don't think this is the hill that animal rights folks need to be fighting on. It's not we're talking about people killing endangered whales, endangered tigers, or African elephants.

We're talking about freakin' pigeons here. Pigeons. They're everywhere. Let's get some perspective.

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