Sausage-Dangling Drone Saves Lost Dog's Life
Lured by encased meats, a dog named Millie was rescued from dangerous wilderness.
A Jack Russell/whippet mix named Millie recently slipped out of her collar and became lost in some tricky wilderness in Hampshire, England. The terrain in that area consists of mud flats, which are full of dangerous mud patches that are hazardous for lumbering humans, who couldn't easily go out to save her. CNN reports that by using an ingenious combination of a drone, a rope, and some sausage, Millie's rescuers were able to coax the dog back to safety.
A volunteer group, Denmead Drone Search, banded together to save the adorable puppy (all dogs are puppies, at least to me!). At first they attempted a rescue by kayak, but soon realized that such an approach wasn't going to work. So the crew resorted to a new and foolproof strategy: encased meats. The rescue team tied a sausage to a rope and flew it over to the dog in order to draw Millie toward dry land. Pure genius.
Millie happily followed the sausage, and the resulting drone footage shown on CNN is pretty remarkable. You see her carefully trotting over safe patches of marsh without getting stuck in any dangerous areas, which would easily mire a person (not Millie, however), and eventually she's ushered back home. The poor thing is shivering too, as it looked particularly gloomy out that day.
I'd say a sausage on a string would lure me to safety just as well. I mean, I am from Chicago after all, where grilled sausages and steamed hot dogs are revered as sacred ritual. It did occur to me that all the toppings on a typical hot dog, which include mustard, tomatoes, sweet green relish, diced onions, a pickle spear, sport peppers, and celery salt, wouldn't fare well on a string, but don't worry, I'd be sprinting toward that thing like I was about to win a gold medal for the long jump. I'd rather see a drone performing a daring rescue than delivering a pizza any day.