A dog on a freeway is the kind of call that can go very wrong, very fast. In Orange County, animal control officers used a drone to track and save a lost terrier in minutes.
A drone overhead spotted the dog in the carpool lane and guided ground units to him. The rescue took just minutes.
“This time we were able to just put the drone up and coordinate via the radio and just say, this is where it’s at,” Kyle Werner, an animal control officer for the city of Mission Viejo, told CBS News.
Werner said lost pet searches used to take days or weeks.
“We went from a very passive search, just waiting for something to happen, to actively searching,” Werner said.
The drone uses lasers and thermal imaging to pinpoint animal heat signatures over large areas.
The technology was critical in a recent search for a dog named Lana, according to JR Stewart, a senior animal control officer with Mission Viejo Animal Services.
“I was going through the heavy brush. The brush is above my head,” Stewart said. “There’s no way I would’ve ever seen the dog with the naked eye.”
The drone detected Lana in the brush and guided Stewart to the dog.
Animal control officers also used the drone last year to track down a skittish dog named Josie. Werner said they were able to tell her owner exactly where to find her.
“She [the owner] sat down and was just really calm and allowed the dog to approach her,” Werner said. “And you’ll see, it was really a touching moment when you see that tail wagging.”
The drone cost almost $17,000, paid for with private donations.
Werner said he is already hearing from other agencies interested in the technology.
Asked if he thinks the drone is worth the money, he responded, “100 percent.”
“We’re reuniting someone’s family member with them, and that’s completely invaluable.”
Read more from CBS.
