Could they do this in America, where old baldy is the national symbol, or would they have to use some other kind of raptor. I mean, I think it is slightly illegal to shoot eagles, so the UAV operators would not be able to defend their devices.
And should they? Are these things getting to be too pervasive? What if it was an amazon delivery?
I like the idea of pigeons or seagulls, but face it, this is America. Why would we use cheap and plentiful birds? Surely there is a $20,000 anti-drone drone that some entrepreneur can sell to every law enforcement agency in the country.
I would not underestimate the cost of trained birds, the cost of employing a handler, and the cost of tasty rodents. The $20,000 anti-UAV-drone might actually be a bargain.
If, that is, if it is effective. The birds, I suspect those things would have a very high kill rate.
I suppose we could use golden eagles which are domestically available and trainable to attack large(ish) prey. I suspect that hawks and falcons would be too small and risk injury from the device.
Technically, taking down someone else’s drone is illegal. However, I can’t see too many juries convicting when the drone is over the taker-downer’s property, at least if it is low enough to be taken down.
There was a TV show on (last summer, I think) called Showdown of the Unbeatables, which featured various products vs. people, animals, and various other products. I thought they had a hawk vs. a drone, but I was incorrect. It was a guy with a rifle vs. a drone (drone won in that it escaped being shot down) and a hawk vs. a remote control car. (Car won, but the hawk was scared of it at first. It was doing better at the end.)
As I recall, the privacy/property rule is something like 100 or 200 feet, below which one can destroy the trespasser. Not sure if the resident is required to return the pieces, and it is not clear what kind of rules apply in public spaces. I would think that there is some kind of freedom-from-assault type expectation that would permit a person to deal with being buzzed in, say, a park that is not designated for RC flight use.
