VOLUNTEERS are trying to find a dog lost on a mountain – using drones.
Ester was lost climbing Ben Chonzie, Perthshire, last Tuesday, as she tackled the peak with owner Rachael Nixon.
Rachael, a children’s nurse, has been searching for the cockapoo ever since but yesterday (Sun) the 32-year-old got help from an unusual quarter.
Volunteers from a drone search and rescue (SAR) group on Facebook agreed to send their machines up to help find the pooch.
Members of Drone SAR for Lost Dogs UK can get the machines – complete with cameras – relatively easily to high and inaccesible terrain.
Rachael, from Kirkcaldy, Fife, said: “It’s been so overwhelming with people I don’t even know coming out to help.
“These people have full-time jobs and they’re trying to take time off to go out again this week, so it is amazing.
“They’re quite a new group so it’s hard to get volunteers and they’re trying to get more.”
One of the volunteers out at the weekend was Joanna Forbes from Dundee and she is hoping to get some time off from her job as a Senior Clinical Research Nurse at Ninewells Hospital to help out again.
She explained: “My drone has a camera attached so I send it up and can get quite close.
“Yesterday we were searching around a lot of cliffs and I can get my drone quite close to the cliffy areas that people can’t get to.
“I’m planning on going out this week if I can get annual leave, even if I can get just half a day because there’s another area which we haven’t searched yet.”
Joanna says that the group was set up by people who wanted to put their drones to good use.
“It was a group of drone pilots who set up a Facebook page and it has now expanded to the whole of the UK.
“It’s entirely voluntary and is a mixture of dog lovers and people who just want to help. It’s also good practice for flying your drone.
“I’ve been involved in a few searches. It’s hard because it’s usually late on when we get involved. I’ve not been involved in a successful one yet, she added.
Ester was separated from Rachael when she slipped on a rocky area and lost grip of the lead and she was unable to find her in the fog.”
She added: “I miss her so much. She’s the kind of dog that likes to cuddle in under the duvet and it has been so cold without her.
“I had to take last week off work and have got a sick line now for stress. I think my work understand because they know dogs are my life.”
