British drone pilot located 200 lost pets with thermal drone

Erica Hart, a British drone pilot from South Yorkshire, has already used her thermal drone to locate almost 200 lost pets. She does this by using a drone equipped with a thermographic camera, which allows her to view the creatures from a vast distance.

British drone pilot located almost 200 lost pets with thermal drone

Erica was able to reconnect seven pets with their owners only last week. She does not charge for her services.

“I'm not doing this for the money. I do it to reunite dogs with their owners.”

Six years of experience flying thermal drones

Erica initially used her drone to search down a stray puppy six years ago, she told the BBC. Then, within fifteen minutes, she discovered a stray dog. She claims to have found over 200 pets since then.

“And still, finding a dog feels like winning the lottery.”

Lea Williams is one of the dog owners whose dog Erica discovered. Chester, his dog, had been gone for three days.

“It felt like a family member had passed away. My daughter couldn't sleep anymore. Thanks to Erica, it ended well and our dog was found.”

A drone equipped with a thermal camera

Erica currently uses a DJI Mavic 2 Enterprise Advanced for her pet search-and-rescue missions. This drone features two cameras, one of which is a thermal imager and the other is an RGB camera with a 32x magnification.

Despite the fact that this drone costs a few thousand dollars, Erica refuses to be compensated for her assistance in finding dogs.

“At most I will accept some gas money if I have to drive a long way. I don't see this as a business venture.”

You can watch the BBC interview with Erica here. Or you can read more stories about drones being used for good here.

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This article first appeared on Dronewatch and is written by Wiebe de Jager who is also a DroneXL contributor.