Eagles as prison guards?

Some eagles could soon be spending much of their life in jail if the U.K. government gets its way. No, the powers-that-be aren't looking to target the majestic creature in some kind of bizarre police crackdown on bird-instigated crime. Instead, it's hoping to make use of their supreme hunting skills in its fight to keep drone-delivered contraband out of the nation's prisons. Discussing the issue during a debate in the British parliament this week, prisons minister Sam Gyimah described the threat posed by drones as "a game changer," adding that the government was looking for an effective solution for dealing with rogue unmanned flying machines around prisons and other sensitive locations. Gyimah said his team was "keeping a close eye on what's happening in Holland, where they're using eagles to stop drones." Police in the Netherlands recently completed extensive trials using highly trained eagles to snatch remotely controlled multi-rotor copters out of the sky and return them to their handler.