Phillyburb hunters shoots down activist spy drone

Here's the type of story that makes you proud to be an American.

An obscure activist group calling themselves SHARK sent up a spy drone to catch footage of a pigeon shoot in Berks county Pennsylvania. Needless to say, an unwanted spy drone flying over private property filled with men with guns met with what should have been the expected result.

Flying Camera From Animal Rights Group Shot Down at Pigeon Shoot

SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) are in the midst of a campaign against the Wing Pointe commercial hunting grounds in Hamburg, Berks County and its live pigeon shoots in which the birds are shot down. SHARK began to use an “Octocopter,” a remote controlled flying machine with a high tech video camera, to secretly record the pigeon shoots as they happen.

"The pigeon shooters are basically going into hiding," said Steve Hindi, president of SHARK. "So they're using a ring that's up a hill and completely surrounded by trees. So the only way you can get to it is through the air."

The drone, nicknamed “Angel,” was recording a live pigeon shoot on Sunday around 3 p.m. when investigators say it was suddenly struck by gunfire.

NBC 10

They say they heard a single gunshot before they lost the camera feed and the drone went down (mighty good shootin if you ask me ). They're crying that the drone sustained $4000.00 in damages. I've seen similar drones for sale at Costco for under $300 so I wonder where they came up with that number.

The police are investigating the incident. What they should be investigating in my opinion is the violation of privacy involved in sending a spy drone over private property to record perfectly legal activity.

Where do these people get off thinking that its all right to send drones over private property without some type of legal warrant? I think it should be the right of every red-blooded American to deploy countermeasures when their privacy is invaded in such a way. Imagine if instead, this had been some group of pedos sending a spy cam over a pool party to get video of young boys and girls. How is that any different? How is this not considered trespassing?

I think the hunters should be applauded for protecting their privacy rights against such a blatant invasion. This isn't the first time this group has had one of their drones shot down BTW, apparently it happened a few months ago in South Carolina.



Don't know why they expected different results this time. I think its just a publicity stunt and an attempt to paint themselves as victims in the hopes of bringing criminal charges against people defending themselves from an invasion of their privacy.

Its actually illegal to invade property and spy like this.

Not to mention, totally immoral and unjustified.

Too bad these activists are out wasting their time and resources on petty pointless endevours like this.
Sure could use them in the struggle for liberty, but apparently they are on the wrong side already.

reply to post by FortAnthem


I kinda like the idea of the Estes rockets with M80's. Of course, that would bring the law down upon you in many states.

But maybe a suicide drone would be just as fun...and quiter as well.

reply to post by muzzleflash


It's direct action. Of course, they're going to invade privacy.

What's to investigate? It's a pigeon shoot. They shoot pigeons.

Did the activists think they had Bengal tigers in there or something?

What a waste of time on their part.

This is an invasion of privacy...

The only people allowed to use drone's for these illegal searches is...

Our Government of course.

Let SHARK keep bringing in drones to an area with loaded guns and see what happens. They might be able to strike a deal that the shooters stop shooting pigeons, and take up drone hunting. Might be more of a challenge, so it would be fun. Sounds like a win-win.

I will laugh my ass off if the activists get cited for invasion of privacy. (as they should)

This is like a drug dealer whining to the cops that he got stiffed on his last sale.

I don't think there are any laws governing the use of drones over private land as of yet. There needs to be as this clearly shows. Drawing up legislation limiting the use of drones or unmanned aircraft over private land would be a nightmare though. Since all air space in the US is controlled by the FAA, and they would still want to be able to use government drones over private land, wrtiting up a bill would be hard to do. Either Government drones would
ve to be easily identifieable, or they have to allow for all unmanned aircraft to be allowed over private property.

Here is an escerpt from an articel posted on epic.org... . The article does not say who it was written by, but i take no credit for its content. Please visit the link provided for more information.

The US Supreme Court has held that individuals do not generally have Fourth Amendment rights with respect to aerial surveillance because of the ability that anyone might have to observe what could be viewed from the air. Of course, individuals do not operate drone vehicles with the capabilities of the US government. Also, some state courts have reached different conclusions about the privacy issues associated with aerial surveillance.

Wtf? Why the lies? It wasn't in private property. It was in public road. When you are in public you have every right to film anything you (or your drone) see.

[edit to add] Btw, your video convieniently cuts the part where the drone is shot out so it can talk about how the evil people were invading private property. Bunch of idiots.

reply to post by borracho


It actually wouldn't be that bad to do. Set up a minimum altitude limit. Everything below that altitude "belongs" to the land owner, everything above it belongs to the FAA. Then set the altitude where planes are normally flying, so that they have to go to the FAA to get permission to fly in that area, or have to have a transponder installed. That means no small UAVs will be there, because something like this can't carry a transponder.

What I on't get is why "SHARK" gives a crap about pigeons. Pigeons are not indigenous to the americas. They are not even supposed to be here. They are a pest species. They are technically european rock doves or something that came over with the settlers. So what gives. they are supposed to be culled. What like there aren't enough of them around. Pretty sure a pigeon getting hit with a shot gun regardless of load and gauge will be dead pretty quickly and painlessly.

Glad their drone got blasted. wish I was the one that shot it down, it sounds like a lot of fun to blast a crappy RC drone out of the air.

These farms where they shoot them they are anything but culled. They are held in cages and the set free so they can be shot one second into their flight.

Originally posted by PsykoOps
Wtf? Why the lies? It wasn't in private property. It was in public road. When you are in public you have every right to film anything you (or your drone) see.

They LAUNCHED from a public road. Afterward, they sent their drone over private property to film the shoot which they make pretty obvious by their description of what they had to do.

"The pigeon shooters are basically going into hiding," said Steve Hindi, president of SHARK. "So they're using a ring that's up a hill and completely surrounded by trees. So the only way you can get to it is through the air."

If they're hiding in a ring of trees, up on a hill, it sounds to me like it was necessary to fly over their land in order for them to film the shoot.

reply to post by FortAnthem


The funniest thing about all of this is that Americans are so easily controlled and manipulated... case in point, all RC toys that fly are now miraculously referred to as "drones"

Do you people not see this happening? These toys have been around for decades, but now they are always referred to as being "drones". They are not drones, they are RC toys.

reply to post by FortAnthem




I had to go to the previous thread about this to fetch this. They were over the road.

Wait a minute... this is a new shooting? That YT video was from february and used footage from this incident I'm talking about. I'm confuzzled.

reply to post by detachedindividual


Correct RC Toys being operated for Drone use. They have cameras and are being employed to spy on people over restricted airspace (their private property) Sounds like the definition of a drone to me. Anybody could say that a Predator or reaper drone are RC (remote controlled) craft too and not drones. So the argument is sort of silly.

Still wish I got a crack at shooting the drone down. Just to see what would happen if you shot a RC Craft with a shotgun. SHot the second xbox I purchased with that got the red ring of death out of frustration once with a .308 that I took to an outdoor range once. That was pretty satisfying.

Private property is not restricted air space. We went throug all this in the previous thread.

Originally posted by FortAnthem
They LAUNCHED from a public road. Afterward, they sent their drone over private property to film the shoot which they make pretty obvious by their description of what they had to do.

"The pigeon shooters are basically going into hiding," said Steve Hindi, president of SHARK. "So they're using a ring that's up a hill and completely surrounded by trees. So the only way you can get to it is through the air."

If they're hiding in a ring of trees, up on a hill, it sounds to me like it was necessary to fly over their land in order for them to film the shoot.

Nope that doesn't say that they were on private property either. You think they send the drone over at the shooters, they actually just send it high enough to see over the natural obstacles.

Good. Maybe they will stop once the thing is shot again.
What a stupid waste of money, to spy on pigeon shooting.

I can draw SHARK a diagram as to what happens at pigeon shoots. Not very difficult.

Wish I had a chance to shoot one as well.