A sausage that rescued a dog

Rescuers in the United Kingdom have employed a drone with a sausage attachment to save a stranded dog. Millie, a Jack Russell-whippet cross, caused concern when she slipped her leash in Havant, Hampshire and quickly got lost.

Several public appeals later, she was spotted on the mudflats in a perilous position.

She initially resisted the rescue mission as naturally she was quite scared from the whole ordeal. 

She defied the efforts of police, firefighters and coastguards to rescue her from the mudflats and her safety looked less and less likely as the tide came in.

With the clock ticking against them, they had to think creatively to save her.

Luckily, someone came up with the idea of attaching a sausage to a drone hoping she would move towards the scent.

Chris Taylor, the chair of the Denmead Drone Search and Rescue team said, “It was a crazy idea.”

After checking the regulations of the Civil Aviation Authority and the weight restrictions of the drone, the rescue effort went ahead with a single, dangling, sausage.

Taylor said: “One of the local residents on the beach where we were flying from supplied us with the sausages — I think they were from Aldi. The woman cooked them up for us and we attached them with string.”

“If we hadn’t had got her away from that area the tide would have come in and she would have been at risk of drowning,” said Taylor.

“It was something we had never tried before – the sausages were the last resort, as we couldn’t reach her by kayak or any other means.

“Because Millie was hungry it worked at luring her away from the danger to higher ground, which wouldn’t go underwater.

“We certainly would consider using sausages again: every dog and search operation is always going to be different, but if we were ever in a similar situation again we would employ the same methods to lure the dog.”

Unfortunately, after making her way to safety, Millie did escape again because she’s a flighty queen, but her owner Emma Oakes eventually got her back.

Oakes’ father Tony eventually coaxed her back to them and she leapt into his arms.

Emma Oakes said, “Relief just poured over me. It was just absolutely fantastic to have her home.

“Millie really likes food and she’ll eat anything you give her…aw carrots, cucumber — but she much prefers sausages. Meat is her favourite food, so dangling a sausage was probably the best thing they could lure her with.

“Millie’s a rescue dog so she’s quite timid. She loves being at home more than anything and now she’s back all she’s doing is sleeping. She just sleeps and eats and looks at you as if to say: ‘I’m resting, leave me alone.'”

Source: Agencies