Vermont Fish & Wildlife Considers Restricting Hunters with Drones

(Source: mychamplainvalley.com)  

The Vermont Fish and Wildlife Department wants to make it against the law to use unmanned aircrafts, or drones when hunting.

The proposed regulations would make it illegal for any person to track animals, and cross property lines with a flying drone.

Vermont Fish and Wildlife has been monitoring the use of drones in hunting across the country, and found some hunters are flying aircrafts as a tool to track game.

That’s raising some ethical concerns.

“We’ve really had no issues yet here in Vermont, and this is being proactively addressing it before any issues might arise here in Vermont,” said Col. David Lecours, Director of Law Enforcement for Vermont Fish and Wildlife.

Recently, a group of sportsmen shared their concerns with the Fish and Wildlife board.

They petitioned the board, saying drones give hunters an unfair advantage..

Vermont Fish and Wildlife Dept. told Local22,/Local 44 News, regulations on drones would not only protect the rights of hunters, but also animals in their natural habitats, and property owners who clearly don’t want anyone, or anything like drones trespassing.

“We have regulations we don’t need and every now and then there’s one you do need,” said Cedric Sanborn, who is an avid hunter and also owns an outdoor shop in Barre.

Sanborn admits he’d be annoyed if another hunter was using a drone nearby, but added these are regulations Vermont hunters just don’t need.

“Drones are really not going to work up here like they would out west in the wide open places. They’re never going to get a clear line of sight on an animal, and be able to track it,” said Sanborn.

Currently Vermont doesn’t have any rules on drones during hunts, but that could change by next year.

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