An independent journalist says he’s found a way around the so-called “ag-gag” laws by flying drones over large livestock operations to document animal welfare problems and pollution.
Will Potter, a Washington D.C.-based author and blogger, recently raised $75,000 on Kickstarter to buy the drones and other equipment to investigate animal agriculture in the U.S.
Have shotgun, will travel.
I’d go with Double 00.
Since we came up with the new shot, I would go with size “T” steel. Better pattern and good one pellet knock down energy. Might be tricky to lead; probably a lot like teal.
Quadcopters are cheap. How come there isn’t a swarm of quadcopters along the Rio Grande?
But officer, I swear it looked just like a Pterodactyl!
I’ve always wanted a 10 gauge….
“Those things better not be coming over during duck season because there are hunters out there that might look up and mistake that drone for a duck,” says Chuck Jolley, a meat industry veteran.
Chuck is way too polite.
Agreed, like many SDA readers and members of Congress, I also prefer to receive my information about the conditions in large livestock operations directly and exclusively from the large livestock operators.
Affordable meat isn’t ‘free’, people complain at the supermarket about prices and then want to complain about the industry.
It seems the poor cows are too much sacrifice for cheap meat, yet cheap clothes – by all means, let’s put more kids on the production lines in SE asia.
Don’t want cheap meat, then don’t buy it. Pay your local farmer a real living wage to raise ‘happy cows’ then you can have your smug beef and eat it. However, be sure to also pay him to raise a happy cow for that family down the street that can’t afford your smugness. Better yet, for every smug cow that you eat, pay for 100 others so everyone can enjoy your smugness.
We’ll all love you for it.
Interesting how many people are really brave and macho about their guns, but are timid and cowardly about the truth. Are these people afraid about what the operators of these drones might discover? If they have nothing to hide, they shouldn’t be bothered about it.
How about you let us put cameras in your house to monitor how poorly you raise your kids? If you have nothing to hide, etc.
Buzzing a livestock herd with drones could cause panic/stampedes and injury to both man and beast- why is this legal? Thee are laws about private property and trespass I;m sure could be applied to drone harassment.
Moral preening isn’t popular here and the so-called activists who would want to fly these things are moral preeners par excelance. These are people who want meat expensive so the poor cannot afford it. Same as with energy.
The eco-fascists want energy and food to cost more. This is morally reprehensible.
And, their real long term purpose is to totally shut down the meat industry.
Occam, agreed, this should be illegal.
I’m just surprised that the pr!ck raised 75k.
Anyone want to start a Kickstarter campaign to to buy a bunch of shotguns and ammo?
Powerful ground-based lasers to blind the cameras on the drones would be fun, too. And lasers operating in the IR range would not be visible to observers on the ground outside the fence. Sufficiently powerful lasers could cripple the drones and make them crash.
Don’t know why Drones are necessary to observe hundreds of cattle standing belly deep in shit in parts of the States. I’ve driven by operations that are mind boggling in size and the stink is blinding for miles. Americans don’t fool around when a dollar is too be made and that’s not a bad thing. You still have to have keep an eye out for the creatures that find themselves these giant hell holes. Some things are just too damn big. E coli shouldn’t be part of the barbeque.
Radar. Controlled. Turrets. With frickin’ lasers.
http://hackaday.com/?s=turret
But yeah, it’d be more fun to shoot ’em down by hand.
Therefore ARMED model airplanes/quad copters with POV front view gun cameras. Imagine the carnage you could wreak on the Greenie copters with just a paintball gun.
Dear Kt and Percy Cowlover, if you want to fly a drone over something important in the USA, may I suggest the Mexican border? Or how about one of those “facilities” where the Feds are packing illegal aliens in like sardines?
I’m tremendously less interested in what some random meat packing plant might be doing to a cow before it becomes a McDonald’s hamburger, than in what the US government is doing to real live humans for political purposes.
They’re COWS, gentlemen. They are born, they grow up, and then WE EAT THEM. We also make belts and lamp shades and all sorts of things out of their poor innocent cow skins too.
I really don’t care if they’re running Cow Auschwitz in there, so long as I don’t catch a disease from the delicious and yummy cow meat. Plain enough for you?
I’ll be first in line to open fire on that drone if you’re going to be doing anything in driving distance from Chez Phantom. I’d pay money for the privilege.
“E coli shouldn’t be part of the barbeque.”
Grow up. If yer there…it is…
You obviously never took microbiology 101.
That’s why ya boil/deep fry potatoes and cook hamburger to well done.
Eating beef tar-tar is asking for food poisoning even if it came from “happy cows living in a daisy infected meadow……
UN-sterilized top soil is infected 10 to the 10th…..
Don’t get me started on tofu……
The hormones, antibiotics and other drugs fed to industrial meat animals in US CAFOs are not made safe for human consumption by cooking.
Has nothing to do with being “brave and macho about their guns” and everything to do with privacy whether you like it or not. It is, quite simply, trespassing and will be dealt with as such.
“Are these people afraid about what the operators of these drones might discover? If they have nothing to hide, they shouldn’t be bothered about it.”
Yeah, because Leftists like Al Gore, Michael Moore, Bill Clinton, and Barack Obama are such paragons of truth.
Nothing to be afraid of at all.
How about we on the Right reciprocate the level of cooperation we get from the Left, M-Kay?
“by flying drones over large livestock operation”
So, in other words, he’s ADMITTING to a conspiracy to break FAA rules, regulations and various state and federal laws.
Okay then
We can just outsource our meat production to China and India.
What could go wrong?
“The hormones, antibiotics and other drugs fed to industrial meat animals in US CAFOs are not made safe for human consumption by cooking.”
Have ya got a reputable link to that other than HSUS, PETA or some vegan fantasy….