Have you ever heard of a Drone Search and Rescue Team? Maybe you are one of the few people who are familiar with this concept. But how many of you have heard of a Drone Search and Rescue Team dangling sausages to entice a dog as part of the rescue attempt?
Meet Millie, the Jack Russell Terrier who slipped off her leash and evaded rescue efforts from several well-intentioned groups. The Coast Guard, police officers, and firefighters made their best efforts to rescue Millie but to no avail.
Eventually, Millie found herself in a risky section of the mudflats of Hampshire, England. where could be caught up in the rising tides and drown.. By now, everyone was getting desperate to rescue this feisty little Jack Russell Terrier who had escaped her leash.
In A Last Ditch Effort to Save Millie, the Denmead Drone Search and Rescue Team came up with “a crazy idea.”
Someone on the Denmead Drone Search and Rescue Team remembered hearing that Milli loved sausages. The rest of the team was excited to hear about a possible way to entice Millie to come to them. There was one major problem though. They coouln’t reach Millie very easily and ruled out every possible means to do so. That is when someone came up with a brilliant but crazy idea: dangling sausages!
Chris Taylor, chair of the Denmead Drone Search and Rescue Team, told us how the event played out. “One of the local residents on the beach where we were flying from supplied us with the sausages. The woman cooked them up for us, and we attached them with string. If we hadn’t had got her away from that area, the tide would have come in, and she would have been at risk of drowning.”
Their plan may have been crazy and it certainly was unique but, thanks to this plan they were able to rescue Millie. Both Millie and her owner, Emma Oakes were thrilled to be safely united after a harrowing week apart. Emma was quoted in The Guardian as saying, “Relief just poured over me. It was just absolutely fantastic to have her home.”
Emma also shared that , “Millie really likes food, and she’ll eat anything you give her…raw carrots, cucumber — but she much prefers sausages. Meat is her favorite food, so dangling a sausage was probably the best thing they could lure her with.”
This Open Minded Team May Have A New Tool
No matter how crazy it might have sounded when it was first suggested, the dangling sausage technique to rescue Millie was a success. They are now giving serious consideration to adding the sausage lure to their tool-belt in rescuing animals in their area
Obviously, each search and rescue operation must be tailor made to the specific situation at hand. This means that they may resolved in various and, sometimes, unique ways. Who knows when using sausages, dangling or otherwise, might be the best way to rescue a particular animal? I am just happy that the team keeps an open mind to new ideas that might better fit an individual lost dog.
Here is an American dog rescue using sausages in a different way. https://happymutt.org/thanks-to-sausages-missing-dogs-find-their-way-home/
Photo Credit: Denmead Drone Search and Rescue