Rescuers Use Sausage Attached To Drone To Save Stranded Dog
Rescuers have saved a dog in the UK from rising tides by tying a sausage to a drone and luring it to safety.
Rescuers in the UK have used a drone with a sausage attached to it to save a stranded dog.
From here on out this is the only approved use of drones.
Millie, a Jack Russell-whippet cross, sparked concern when she slipped her leash in Havant, Hampshire and quickly disappeared.
After several public appeals for her rescue, she was spotted on the mudflats in a perilous position.
She resisted rescue, presumably because she was very scared by the whole ordeal.
She defied the efforts of police, firefighters and coastguards to rescue her from the mudflats and her safety looked less and less likely as the tide came in.
With the clock ticking against them, they had to think creatively to save her.
Luckily, someone came up with the idea of attaching a sausage to a drone hoping she would move towards the scent.
Chris Taylor, the chair of the Denmead Drone Search and Rescue team, told The Guardian: "It was a crazy idea."
After checking the regulations of the Civil Aviation Authority and the weight restrictions of the drone, the rescue effort went ahead with a single, dangling, sausage.
I know there were police there, so they had to do things by the book, but I am so impressed by their commitment to safety on this one.
I'd be attaching an entire carcass to this drone to rescue my dog if necessary.
Taylor said: "One of the local residents on the beach where we were flying from supplied us with the sausages - I think they were from Aldi. The woman cooked them up for us and we attached them with string."
Cooked them! Amazing.
"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," said Taylor.
"It was something we had never tried before - the sausages were the last resort, as we couldn't reach her by kayak or any other means.
"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."
Unfortunately, after making her way to safety, Millie did escape again because she's a flighty queen, but her owner Emma Oakes eventually got her back.
Oakes' father Tony eventually coaxed her back to them and she leapt into his arms.
Emma Oakes said: "Relief just poured over me. It was just absolutely fantastic to have her home.
"Millie really likes food and she'll eat anything you give her...aw 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.'"
The drama this dog has brought is incomparable.
After forcing these rescuers to spend hours trying to catch her, creating an entire Bunnings sausage sizzle event for her alone, and then running off again, only to go straight to bed?
Iconic behaviour.
Featured Image Credit: DDSAR FacebookHannah Blackiston