D.C.-area pet owners are using drones to find lost animals
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Some pet owners in the greater Washington area are turning to drones to find their lost animals.
The big picture: This comes as we all increasingly spend more money on our pets.
State of play: Drones are "the hot thing" right now when it comes to pet recovery thanks to social media, says Carmen Brothers, who runs the group Professional Pet Trackers near Winchester.
- She's been finding lost pets across the country for years — and was even featured on National Geographic — but recently started incorporating drones into her arsenal.
How it works: The drone uses thermal imaging to pick up a lost pet's heat signature, says Matthew Chapman of Sky Sniff Animal Recovery, also based near Winchester.
- Chapman has used drones to search for dogs, cats, a parrot, and over 100 cows that got loose when a tractor-trailer crashed.
- And across Brothers' career, she's tracked down animals like goats, sheep, turtles, and even a fennec fox and a capybara named Copernicus. "If it moves, we can track it."
- Both have worked with locals in spots like Dumfries, Herndon and Reston; Chapman can charge up to $400 for an initial drone search, while Brothers' max is typically in the $900 range.
Reality check: "It's a tool," Chapman says of drones, which can locate an animal but don't have the expertise of an actual pet rescuer. "It's not a magic wand."
- Animals will often be in fight-or-flight mode when lost, and won't come when an owner calls them — meaning Carmen relies on a combination of sniffing dogs and pet psychology to actually get the animal home.
Plus: Terrain and temperature also play a role in drone efficacy. It's best to use them on cloudy, cool days — aka not at noon in August — and it's hard for drones to detect animals hiding under solid objects, say the pros.
- And be careful: Chapman says someone once fired a gun at him when he was tracking a dog on private property.
The intrigue: Washington's restrictive airspace can make drone searches difficult, and best for people located in 'burbs further out from D.C., say the experts
Pro tip: Do your research when hiring a pet tracker.
- "You're already emotional and you just want your dog home," says Brothers, and scammers often take advantage of pet owners when they're vulnerable — especially now that AI can be used to generate pictures of people's pets.