Eyes in the Sky: Drones are proving invaluable for animal rights activists around the world
Drones have become irreplaceable tools in activist and conservation circles. They are relatively cheap, easy to use and extend a person’s range in difficult or inaccessible terrain. When it comes to marine mammal captivity, the aerial perspective can be invaluable, exposing the cramped conditions and the constrained life of animals such as Romeo, an elderly manatee living alone in a decaying private pool in Miami. Within a month, the clip had been watched by millions. The resulting public outcry was so intense that the US Fish and Wildlife Service moved the manatee, Romeo, and his mate, Juliet, to a sanctuary.
LAURA TRETHEWEY: Late last year, UrgentSeas received an anonymous tip from a former employee at the Miami Seaquarium about animal tanks away from public view. The advocacy group went to investigate.
In November, they posted a short clip of what they found by flying a drone over the property: an elderly manatee living alone in a decaying private pool. Within a month, the clip had been watched millions of times and the outcry had grown so intense that the US Fish and Wildlife Service moved the manatee, Romeo, and his mate, Juliet, to a sanctuary.
Over the past decade, drones have become irreplaceable tools in activist and conservation circles. In 2013, the animal rights group Peta (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) launched a drone campaign tracking illegal bowhunting in Massachusetts.
Since then, drones have been used to record factory farm pollution in the American midwest, sea lice outbreaks in Icelandic salmon pens, and deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon. Drones are popular because they’re relatively cheap, easy to use and extend a person’s range in difficult or inaccessible terrain. They also provide a bird’s-eye view of the scale of an issue, such as an oil spill or illegal logging.
When it comes to marine mammal captivity, the aerial perspective can be invaluable, exposing the cramped conditions and the constrained life for the animals inside the tanks.
In some cases, the drones capture the secret lives of animals hidden from view, such as Romeo the manatee in Miami. “This is the footage people need to see to realise how cruel captivity really is,” says the drone pilot who shot the footage at the Miami Seaquarium, and who prefers to remain anonymous”.
Drones also allow activists to safely distance themselves from the risky situations they’re filming. During one campaign to save the critically endangered vaquita porpoise in the Gulf of California, cartel-funded fishers shot Sea Shepherd’s drones out of the sky and hurled molotov cocktails at their ship…
As a relatively new technology, drones still exist in a legal grey area. “The question of drones, laws and privacy is a new question,” says Benjamin Christopher Carraway, a lawyer at the Animal Activist Legal Defense Project in Colorado and Demers’s attorney. There are a few state torts and statutes regarding drones, but he hasn’t seen much case law work its way through the courts yet.
Activists argue that drones are necessary for free speech and democracy, but opponents say that they infringe on privacy and, in the case of aquariums and zoos, disturb animals, customers and staff…
After the drone footage of Romeo went viral last November, the Miami Seaquarium filed for a protective order against Phil Demers, the co-founder of UrgentSeas. The move was part of a larger lawsuit the aquarium filed against the animal activist in May 2023, alleging defamation, public nuisance and trespassing – much of it by flying drones and recording the property…
The trial involving Demers and the Miami Seaquarium is set for May, but it’s doubtful the facility will still be in business by then. The death of the orca Lolita last year and the report of the living conditions faced by Romeo have ratcheted up public pressure on the already beleaguered aquarium. On 7 March, Miami-Dade county issued an eviction notice, ordering the aquarium’s operator to vacate the county-owned property by 21 April.
Every month, UrgentSeas receives five or six tips from whistleblowers, most of whom are former or current staff at zoos and aquariums around the world. According to Whale & Dolphin Conservation USA, there are now 56 orcas in captivity globally.
UrgentSeas plans to document every facility by drone (though the group discourages supporters from flying drones themselves). “It’s the drones that can show you everything,” says the anonymous UrgentSeas pilot. “But it comes with a lot of risks.” SOURCE…
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