"Aerial ATVs" May Be Used To Ward Off Predators
After two years of
prodding by Idaho's congressional delegation and the office of
Governor Dirk Kempthorne, the FAA has granted its conditional
approval to ranchers who wish to obtain state permits to shoot
coyotes and other predators while flying overhead in powered
parachutes and ultralights.
"These are the newest, hottest things for ranchers," said FAA
spokesman Allen Kenitzer. "This is something people out West really
wanted, to be able to use these aircraft out in the middle of
nowhere to do the things they need to do."
While a law allowing people to "shoot, capture, harass or kill"
wildlife that is threatening livestock, while the person is
overhead in an aircraft, has been on the books for years in Idaho,
the state had asked the FAA for waiver to continue the practice
after it caught the agency's attention in 2003 -- when the FAA
cited a southeastern Idaho rancher for using his powered parachute
as an aerial gun platform to shoot coyotes.
The agency initially balked at the request, but last spring FAA
Administrator Marion Blakey agreed to the practice, saying the
agency "does not want to unduly restrict these activities, but only
wants to ensure they are conducted safely and in appropriately
certificated aircraft."
By "appropriately certificated," Blakey means those airplanes
certified under the FAA's Light Sport category -- especially
ultralights and powered 'chutes, planes dubbed by Idaho officials
as "aerial ATVs." With as little as eight hours of training, a
pilot can legally operate such vehicles.
"As technology has improved, it has become apparent that powered
parachutes are an ideal vehicle for airborne predator control,"
wrote Stanley Boyd, a lobbyist for woolgrowers, elk breeders and
cattle ranchers who heads the Idaho Animal Damage Control
Board.
Not everyone agrees with that assessment, however -- in
particular, animal rights activists.
"I'm covering my eyes
and laughing," said Wendy Keefover-Ring, coordinator of a national
coalition of environmental groups that wants to end aerial gunning
of wildlife, to the Associated Press. "It's unsafe even when you
are in a plane that has a stronger engine than these ultralights
have."
"There is so little margin for error when you are flying 10 feet
off the ground shooting a gun at a moving target," Keefover-Ring
added, while also acknowledging that to date, the conservation
group Sinapu has no record of an ultralight crashing while being
used for aerial gunning.
Sinapu does have records, going back to 1989, of 24 accidents
involving standard aircraft and helicopters during airborne
predator flights. Those accidents resulted in the deaths of 32
people, Keefover-Ring said.
Those who support the use of light aircraft for hunting say
those numbers support their case.
"Airplanes, even small planes, can travel over 100 miles an
hour, while these aerial ATVs move along about the speed that a
coyote can run," said Eulalie Langford, a former state legislator
from Montpelier who also defended the unidentified pilot cited in
2003. "If there's a mountain coming up, you have plenty of time to
see it and take evasive action."