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March 31st, 2013 
Peter Nolan
Updated
Farming bodies have criticised an animal welfare group’s plan to use a drone to film farming practices on properties around Australia, with one saying the drone would be shot down.
Animal Liberation has purchased a surveillance drone equipped with a powerful camera.
The group says the drone can film from as low as 10 metres above the ground to gather potential evidence of animal abuse.
Spokesman Mark Pearson says the practice will not contravene trespass or privacy laws.
He says animal welfare is in the public interest.
“Farming practices, whether they be illegal or whether they be common farming practices which are to be put into question, such as mulesing and leaving animals without shelter in extreme temperatures, then that it in the public interest,” he said.
“If there is public interest, then that is not an invasion, it is a service to the community.
“The High Court has already dealt with the issue of privacy.
“We’re not interested in people’s personal lives and what’s happening in their homes, but if you have a business which uses animals then that is of public interest, and that’s been dealt with by the High Court.”
‘Shoot it down’
But the head of the Northern Territory Cattleman’s Association, David Warriner, disagrees.
“I’m not worried about the monitoring of animal welfare situation – we’re quite confident that we do a pretty good job of that,” he said.
“But it’s an invasion of privacy. How would these people like if we had drones flying over their house?”
He says farmers would not put up with drones that could hamper helicopter operations on outback stations, and disrupt livestock.
Mr Warriner says he expects some farmers would shoot down the drones.
“It’s very dangerous and I would also say that if it’s going to be within 10 metres of livestock it’s going to cause a lot of disturbance, and we would certainly object to it on those two bases,” he said.
“It wouldn’t surprise me if someone had a crack at one that was annoying them. They would I reckon.
“It wouldn’t be hard to shoot a drone down with a shotgun, would it?”
Roger Farley from the South Australian Farmers’ Federation believes most farmers have nothing to hide.
“It sounds like a waste of time to me,” he said.
“No farmer that I know of actually treats his animals in an inhumane way, because with best animal practice we get best production from our animal.”
Topics:
animal-welfare,
law-crime-and-justice,
science-and-technology,
security-intelligence,
australia,
nt
First posted
Source Article from http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-03-31/animal-welfare-group-to-monitor-farms-with-drone/4602644
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