The Wright stuff

From ANIMAL PEOPLE, January/February 1996:

REND LAKE, Illinois– – Chicago
Animal Rights Coalition president Steve
Hindi, a licensed pilot, on December 16 startled
the Illinois Department of Natural
Resources, hunters culling deer at the Renn
Lake Wildlife Refuge, and fellow protesters
by soaring up in a paraglider to videotape the
action from above––as deer fled from the
sound of the aircraft, away from the hunters.
“This is going to change everything,”
Hindi told ANIMAL PEOPLE. “Air
power revolutionized warfare, and it’s going
to revolutionize protest. No longer can the
DNR and the hunters hide anything from us.”

Hindi’s flight was brief, due to
technical problems with the brand-new equipment.
By the time repairs were made, the
wind had become too strong to attempt further
flights. However, Hindi said, CHARC
expects to have two paragliders in the air over
future major events, each able to stay aloft
for two hours at a time. The only significant
problem, he reported, is that he’s put so
much time into developing the CHARC
remote video and airborne capabilities that
fundraising has lagged. National activist
groups make extensive use of the CHARC
videos, but none have funded the equipment
acquisitions. [Support for CHARC may be
addressed to POB 66, Yorkville, IL 60560.] Ironically, the Rend Lake protest
was backed by deer hunters who believed the
cull was unethical. “I couldn’t believe how
well we were treated by most of the local
hunters,” Hindi said. Local hunters and
activists joined on the night of December 14-
15 to drive hundreds of deer out of the Rend
Lake refuge before the cull hunters were
allowed in. Noise grenades set off by alarm
clocks kept the deer from returning to the
refuge during the three-day hunt. In consequence,
Hindi said, the cull hunters killed
only eight or nine deer total, compared with
an expected bag of 12-plus deer per day.
“It was a complete defeat for the DNR,”
Hindi said.