Animal rights activists based near Philadelphia have added surveillance drones to their tool set to investigate animal abuse.
Showing Animals Respect & Kindness (SHARK), an animal rights non-profit organization, has started to use drones to go “where there are no roads, and beyond fences and walls”, CBS Philly reports, in order to investigate reports of animal abuse.
Stuart Chaifetz, a SHARK activist, told the news outlet that the organization flies the drones over trees to capture footage of animal torture.
According to Chaifetz, SHARK is not allowed to use “long range high definition cameras in urban area such as Philadelphia, where dogfighting and cockfighting are known to take place in basements and garages.”
SHARK is, however, not alone in its plans to use drones to defend animals.
PETA announced that it was entering the game of drones in Apr. 2013, stating that it would use the aerial robots to stalk hunters.
Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn signed a bill into state law in August making it illegal for PETA to use drones to interfere with hunting.
The World Wildlife Fund, in a partnership with Google, also turned to the use of drones to combat the poaching of endangered animals.