A drone with a sausage tied to it was enough for volunteers to rescue a dog from a south English marsh earlier this month.
Millie, a Jack Russell/whippet cross dog, lost her collar and went missing on Jan. 13 on a walk in Hampshire, England. The BBC reported on the rescue.
The dog’s owner, Emma Oakes, found a volunteer organization named Denmead Drone Search and Rescue to find her.
Drones, they’re not just for helping real estate agents get multiple house views anymore, right?
Drone Search Turns Up Dog In Mud Flats
Denmead Drone Search and Rescue volunteer Stefani Dennis told CNN that the dog got stranded on some mudflats near the town. The woman’s organization started in 2019 to help find missing pets and people.
Volunteers from the Coast Guard, fire services, and police worked to get to Millie by foot and kayak, but with no luck.
The scared dog was not responding to the rescue efforts and seemed to move further into the mudflats.
But one volunteer came up with a great idea involving fried sausages and a drone. And it came at the right time, too. Volunteer Chris Taylor said the area was “due to flood within hours,” so they quickly hashed out a plan.
Hungry, Scared Dog + Sausages = Rescue?
As Millie was working on her third day without food, a volunteer named Dave came up with the bright idea. Dennis, the drone operator, said a neighbor came out and volunteered to cook the sausages for the dog.
Dennis joked, “she was under a lot of pressure; she must have felt the world was on her shoulders. But these sausages were obviously very tasty.”
The neighbor gave the drone operator the food and a string, and soon several drones took turns coaxing Millie to safety. Some estimates had Millie 300 meters from solid ground.
Dennis explained that each drone had a sausage dangling from it by “two or three meters.” The drone operator said it was hard to figure out how close to the ground she’d get to the dog, but “it worked somehow.”
Sausage Drones Became Free Entertainment For Some
CNN reported Dennis observing bystanders who “didn’t know what was going on” but thought the drone activity “was hilarious.”
The volunteer drone operators would get close to Millie, who, in turn, worked to catch the tasty treat.
On one attempt, Millie got a hold of half a sausage and “almost took the drone with her,” Dennis said.
After a short time luring the canine, they got Millie off the mudflats to safety. But Millie still wanted some freedom. She ran away again and ended up at an industrial estate on Jan. 17. There, she got reacquainted with her owner.
Dennis said she thought everyone “cried,” and she was “thankful” Millie made it home in the community effort.
