Hunter allegedly shot down drone

Police are investigating an incident during the opening of the duck shooting season in which a drone flown by an animal rights activist was shot down.

The incident happened at Te Waihora Lake Ellesmere last Saturday.

The pilot of the drone told the NZ Herald he put the drone up after hearing screaming and a duck upside down, flapping, with a dog on its way out to go and get it.

“I thought this would be a good time to put the drone up to capture this. Then, bang! I was looking at the screen and I lost signal. I look up and there’s the drone slowly spiralling down into the lake.

“Then, bang, another shot. It (drone) just dropped like a brick out of the sky.”

The pilot was at the lake with advocacy group Christchurch Animal Save for the first day of the bird shooting season.

A police spokesman told the Herald they received a report of a drone being shot at the eastern edge of the lake about 10.30am on Saturday.

“Police have attended and spoke with people at the location. Police will be following up,” the spokesman said.

The spokesperson said the Civil Aviation Authority and the Department of Conservation are also involved. 

North Canterbury Fish & Game Council chair Alan Strong said it was supporting the investigation.

“We are talking to the hunter concerned but will not be commenting further while an investigation is under way,” Strong said.

“We do not condone damage to private property. We remind hunters to always follow our hunters’ code of conduct and respect other people and their property.”

The pilot said he also told the police he would be flying more drones above the lake and asked them to tell the hunters.

Police then returned and told him the hunters had decided to pack up and leave, he said.

“After they left (the hunters), we were seeing flocks of geese and swans flying past us and we were celebrating, because they got to live another day,” the pilot said.

“I’m legal. I’ve been a drone pilot for years. I’ve got a certificate. There was no no-fly zone. I legally flew out there, over the lake, to capture the duck shooting.

“We just wanted to highlight the other side of it (hunting). We saw that it was being celebrated, that duck shooting was coming, and we wanted to tell the other side.”

He said the $2500 drone was at the bottom of the lake. He said he intended to retrieve it somehow and hoped the SD card storage was intact and had saved the video.