According to the bill:
“No person shall willfully and knowingly prevent, obstruct, impede, disturb, or interfere with, or attempt to prevent, obstruct, impede, disturb, or interfere with any person in legally hunting or fishing pursuant to the rules and regulations of the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the law of the State of Alabama. The prohibition in subsection (a) includes, but is not limited to, the use of a drone to intentionally and knowingly harass a person who is legally hunting or fishing.”
SB 240 defines a drone as any unmanned aerial vehicle.
“I was at a legislative conference with some fellow legislators that hunt and fish like I do,” Bedford said to AL.com. “It came up in a conversation that one of the states had been having problems with this. At first I thought they were kidding. But animal rights activist groups are using this to disrupt people who are legally and ethically hunting and fishing and that’s just wrong. And as a lifelong hunter, I don’t want to see that happening in Alabama. “
Even though he hasn’t heard of any Alabama hunters being harassed by drones, Bedford still thought it was necessary to get something on the books.
“But I think it’s just a matter of time if we don’t get something enacted into the law,” he said. “This is just a classic case of the law catching up with technology. As these drones have become more and more sophisticated you can operate them further and further away.”
[AL.com] [Alabama Senate]
