Police are investigating an incident at a Berks County, Pa., hunting club in which someone allegedly targeted a mechanical flying object rather than a living and breathing one.

SHowing Animals Respect and Kindness (SHARK) are in the midst of a campaign against the Wing Pointe commercial hunting grounds in Hamburg, Berks County, and its live pigeon shoots. SHARK began to use an “Octocopter,” a remote controlled flying machine with a high tech video camera, to secretly record the pigeon shoots as they happen.

"The pigeon shooters are basically going into hiding," said Steve Hindi, president of SHARK. "So they're using a ring that's up a hill and completely surrounded by trees. So the only way you can get to it is through the air."

The drone, nicknamed “Angel,” was recording a live pigeon shoot on Sunday around 3 p.m. when investigators say it was suddenly struck by gunfire.

Read the original report  |  More from NBCPhiladelphia.com

SHARK claimed “a single sharp rifle crack rang out,” in a press release sent out on Monday. The group says the camera’s video feed was terminated and the drone went out of control before it was manually brought down. The gunshot caused around $4,000 in damage to the camera, according to SHARK.

State Police are investigating the incident. SHARK claims this is the fourth time the drone has been shot at while trying to spy on what they claim are inhumane pigeon shoots.

"When they do this, it only makes us more determined," said Hindi. "We are going to see these pigeon shoots stopped."

NBC10 is currently trying to contact Wing Pointe for comment and are waiting for a response. NBC10 also spoke with the Berks County's District Attorney. He told us the pigeon shoots are legal and that he also wants to find a way to put a stop to what he considers a "potentially deadly cat and mouse game" between SHARK and Wing Pointe. 

Kyle Kurlick / The Commercial Appeal via AP

Members of the Fayette Co. Animal Control, Animal Rescue and the West Tenn. Drug Task Force round up 128 dogs found in a U-Haul trailer that was pulled over on to investigate for drugs on I-40 East of Memphis, Tenn. on Jan. 17, 2012. Instead, the dogs and one cat were found, all of which were locked in cages with tie-fasteners and no ventilation.

Authorities in West Tennessee arrested two women when they discovered 128 live dogs, one dead dog and a live cat inside a U-Haul truck and a minivan during a traffic stop on Interstate 40, WSMV-TV reports.

The Commercial-Appeal in Memphis reports that the dogs were hungry, thirsty and living in squalor, without ventilation. The newspaper reported that the arrested women were associated with Hearts for Hounds, a dog rescue organization:

By Tuesday afternoon, the women -- Bonnie Sheehan, 55, and a passenger, Pamela A. King-McCracken, 59, both of the Long Beach, Calif., area -- each faced 128 counts of aggravated animal cruelty, a Class E felony, and were jailed on $100,000 bond each in Fayette County.

Officials at the scene said the women were driving from California to Virginia. A check of the website for Hearts for Hounds showed they were relocating from Long Beach to Virginia. Sheehan is shown as the organization's founder. Read the full story.

Reuters reports from SAN ANTONIO:

The yearlong Texas drought is taking a heartbreaking toll on horses and donkeys, thousands of which have been abandoned by owners who can no longer afford the skyrocketing price of the hay needed to feed them.

Debbie Fincher / Safe Haven Equine Rescue via Reuters

An abandoned, malnourished horse is seen at the Safe Haven Equine Rescue in Gilmer, Texas, in this undated handout image obtained by Reuters on Dec. 3, 2011.

"We get 20 to 40 calls a week that horses are alongside the road and left; nobody's claimed them," Richard Fincher of Safe Haven Equine Rescue in Gilmer, in east Texas, told Reuters. "Sheriffs are calling us all the time."

Before this year, he would get more like three or four calls a week, he said.

The problem, according to Dennis Sigler, a horse specialist at Texas A&M University, is that the drought has dried up the hay fields, leaving horse owners having to pay double or triple the prices they are used to paying for hay, if they can find hay at all.

Horse abandonment is a crime, and state law requires abandoned horses to be held by the local sheriff's department for 18 days, Fincher said. After that, most are sold at a sale barn for whatever prices they can bring.

"People just can't afford to feed horses anymore," Fincher said. "They're too busy trying to feed themselves." Read the full story.

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