{"id":7947,"date":"2018-09-24T09:17:02","date_gmt":"2018-09-24T17:17:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/?p=7947"},"modified":"2018-09-24T09:17:30","modified_gmt":"2018-09-24T17:17:30","slug":"police-consider-drones-to-monitor-badger-cull-protesters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/2018\/09\/24\/police-consider-drones-to-monitor-badger-cull-protesters\/","title":{"rendered":"Police consider drones to monitor badger cull protesters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Devon and Cornwall police warn activists as cull zone is massively expanded<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/badger2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-7948\" src=\"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/badger2-300x180.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"180\" srcset=\"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/badger2-300x180.jpg 300w, https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/badger2-768x461.jpg 768w, https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/badger2-1024x614.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/badger2.jpg 1240w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a>The Guardian (UK)<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk\/police\" data-link-name=\"auto-linked-tag\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Police<\/a>\u00a0have warned badger cull protesters that they may use drones to try to keep order in the far south-west of England following heightened tensions between activists and officers.<\/p>\n<p>In an email to protesters seen by the Guardian, a Devon and\u00a0<a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/uk-news\/cornwall\" data-link-name=\"auto-linked-tag\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Cornwall<\/a>\u00a0officer said the force would consider using drones \u201cwhere intelligence dictates\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>The force said it was considering drones because of a spike in crimes in some areas within cull zones but protesters insisted the move would not stop them from trying to prevent badgers being killed.<\/p>\n<p>The cull in England has been hugely expanded into 10 new areas, with\u00a0<a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2018\/sep\/13\/huge-increase-in-badger-cull-will-see-up-to-42000-shot\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">up to 42,000 animals now due to be shot<\/a>\u00a0in an attempt to curb tuberculosis in cattle, up from 32,500 last year.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-rich-link element-rich-link--tag element--thumbnail element-rich-link--upgraded\" data-component=\"rich-link-tag\" data-link-name=\"rich-link-tag\">\n<div class=\"rich-link tone-news--item rich-link--pillar-news\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__container\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__read-more\">\n<div class=\"rich-link__read-more-text\">The cull zones now cover vast swathes of many counties, including 68% of Devon and 54% of Cornwall.<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<p>The increase is adding to pressure on police forces in these areas. In the email to the protester, the officer wrote: \u201cI have been asked to let you know \u2013 and that you forward as you believe necessary \u2013 that a decision has been made that where intelligence dictates police will consider the deployment of drones.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Andrea White, a spokeswoman for Devon County Hunt Saboteurs, said: \u201cThis escalation in police activity to monitor us with drones comes as no surprise. But whatever they throw at us, we will remain in the field throughout the entire cull, doing what we have always done: saving the lives of badgers.\u201d<\/p>\n<div id=\"attachment_7950\" style=\"width: 269px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/damageddrone2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-7950\" class=\"wp-image-7950 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/09\/damageddrone2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"269\" height=\"187\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-7950\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">File Photo<\/p><\/div>\n<p><strong>Jay Tiernan, a spokesperson for the\u00a0<a class=\"u-underline\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/environment\/2018\/aug\/21\/activists-publish-list-of-badger-cull-farmers-to-sabotage-their-time\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">direct action group Stop the Cull<\/a>, said he thought police drones could be damaged by activists \u2013 or even by farmers who may not want their actions observed.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong>\u201cWe suspect any police drone deployed may end up getting seriously damaged, whether that\u2019s catapults, air rifles or shotguns,\u201d he said.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Tiernan said the increase in the number of cull areas had led to a dramatic rise in the number of activists and made it harder for the police to keep up with them.<\/p>\n<p>Supt Richard Hooper-Bennett, silver commander for the badger policing operation in Devon and Cornwall, said: \u201cUnfortunately, some areas within the cull zone have been subject to a disproportionate degree of criminality. Whilst we respect the right to peaceful protest and will always facilitate this, we also have a duty to protect our rural communities from crime.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis means that where areas have been subject to repeated criminality, we may consider the use of drones to allow officers to have a clearer idea of what is happening in the areas surrounding them.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Devon and Cornwall police warn activists as cull zone is massively expanded The Guardian (UK) Police\u00a0have warned badger cull protesters that they may use drones to try to keep order in the far south-west of England following heightened tensions between activists and officers. In an email to protesters seen by the Guardian, a Devon and\u00a0Cornwall\u00a0officer &hellip; <\/p>\n<p><a class=\"more-link btn\" href=\"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/2018\/09\/24\/police-consider-drones-to-monitor-badger-cull-protesters\/\">Continue reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":7950,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7947"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7947"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7947\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7951,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7947\/revisions\/7951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7947"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7947"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/animalliberationpressoffice.org\/NAALPO\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7947"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}