Losing a beloved pet can be a heart-wrenching experience. If your pet has gone missing, Florida Game Recovery’s (FGR) advanced thermal drone technology can significantly improve your chances of finding them.
“The best part of my job is seeing a pet owner’s expression when they are reunited with their lost pet,” said Trey Larson, owner of Florida Game Recovery in Plant City.
To find lost pets or animals, Larson uses a thermal camera that’s set for white-hot imaging. Cool areas show as gray, but an animal’s temperature causes it to glow like a light in the dark.
“The thermal camera is extremely high quality,” Larson said. “It can pick up all the different heat signatures. Animals stand out extremely well. We scan the area looking at each different heat signature. For an animal, we switch over to the 200x zoom camera. It is a 48-megapixel camera, so it can zoom in incredibly far. During the day, even from 400 feet in the air, I can zoom in and see every detail on the animal to differentiate whether it is the missing pet or just another animal on the loose in the area. One of the questions people ask is how I figure out the animals I locate at night. The drone has an 8,000-lumen spotlight on it. So, whenever we locate an animal with the thermal camera, then we switch over to the zoom camera with the spotlight. From 400 feet in the air, we can zoom in and immediately differentiate between the missing pet or somebody else’s pet.”
Once Larson locates the missing animal, he uses a laser rangefinder.
“I point that at the pet and push a button, and it drops a pin in the exact location of the pet,” Larson said. “It coordinates that with Google Maps, and it pulls up a QR code. The pet owner can scan that QR code, and it pulls the exact coordinates of where that animal is sitting. Once we do that, I keep the watchful eye in the sky, while the pet owner looks at their phone and responds to that exact location. I talk to the owner on the phone. I can see the owner approaching, and I can guide them to the animal even if it is moving so they can recover it.”
Lost pet recovery can be difficult, depending on the response location and type of pet.
“Dogs can travel a large distance quickly, which can cause searching to take a longer amount of time,” Larson said. “Cats tend to stay closer to their home or lost location and can be found much quicker with the thermal drone.”
If you would like to learn more about the services offered by Florida Game Recovery, you can visit its website at www.floridagamerecovery.com or call Larson at 813-434-6584.
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