Sausage-Carrying Drone Saves Stranded Dog’s Life In Uplifting Footage
A dog who found herself stranded on mudflats in Hampshire was rescued with the help of a drone carrying a sausage.
Millie the jack russell-whippet had been out for a walk with her owners in Havant, Hampshire when she slipped out of her lead and disappeared, prompting frantic public appeals from her concerned family.
She was later spotted on the mudflats, with a rising tide threatening to engulf the area and take Millie with it, however she refused efforts to encourage her to walk to a safer spot. That’s where the sausage comes in.
Check out what happened below:
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In a bid to rescue the stranded pup, the Denmead Drone Search and Rescue team came up with the idea of attaching a sausage to one of its drones and using it to entice the dog off the mudflats.
Chris Taylor, who is chairman of the community-run group, described the idea as a ‘crazy’ one – but of course, it was so crazy it just might work.
The team checked both Civil Aviation Authority regulations and the MTOW [maximum takeoff weight] of their machines before getting the sausage from a local resident on the beach where they were flying.
Per The Guardian, Taylor recalled: ‘I think they were from Aldi. The woman cooked them up for us and we attached them with string.’
Like a cat chasing a ball of wool, Millie slowly but surely trotted along after the sausage that appeared in front of her during the rescue mission, allowing the team to lead her to higher ground where she wasn’t at risk of drowning.
4 months agoThe sausage tactic was a new one for the team, but Taylor noted they ‘couldn’t reach her by kayak or any other means’.
He continued: ‘Because Millie was hungry it worked at luring her away from the danger to higher ground, which wouldn’t go underwater. We certainly would consider using sausages again: every dog and search operation is always going to be different, but if we were ever in a similar situation again we would employ the same methods to lure the dog.’
The skittish pup initially made another run for it after she was brought to higher ground, but before long she was reunited with her owner, Emma Oakes, and Oakes’ father, Tony.
Oakes, who works as a care manager, described how relief ‘poured over’ her when she finally had Millie back.
She commented:
It was just absolutely fantastic to have her home.
Millie really likes food and she’ll eat anything you give her … raw carrots, cucumber – but she much prefers sausages. Meat is her favourite food, so dangling a sausage was probably the best thing they could lure her with.
Millie’s a rescue dog so she’s quite timid. She loves being at home more than anything and now she’s back all she’s doing is sleeping. She just sleeps and eats and looks at you as if to say: ‘I’m resting, leave me alone.’
Denmead Drone Search and Rescue has shared numerous stories of rescues on its Facebook page, where it has stressed the team does not ‘chase’ the dogs as this can make it harder to catch them. The team explained it has received ‘a lot of backlash’ for doing its best, though thankfully many other social media users have praised the organisation for its hard work.
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Credits
@denmeaddronesar/Facebook@denmeaddronesar/Facebook
