Colorado town proposes 'drone' bounty

Monday, October 7, 2013

Residents admit they have never seen an unmanned government drone hovering over their Colorado town of Deer Trail (pop. 565), but they don't want to either. In July, they proposed a $100 bounty to anyone with a valid hunting license who could prove, with fragments, that they had shot one down.

Such is the reaction to a "surveillance society" in the state that is also one of the first to allow the legal sale of marijuana in the United States. But it seems likely that drones are being used by government in agriculture as well. In July, the Environmental Protection Agency admitted it had been using manned airplanes to check on so-called concentrated animal feeding operations (large feedlots and pig barns), and it proved to be controversial for some. Unmanned drones may up the ante.

According to Drovers Cattle Network, a survey released by Monmouth University in New Jersey showed that 64 per cent of Americans thought it was acceptable to use drones to catch illegal aliens crossing the border, but fewer than 25 per cent thought it was OK to use them to enforce traffic laws. Maybe it matters whether it's your ox that is being gored by a drone?  BF