Menlo Park crew used drone, airboat, and binoculars to track swimming pet
A small dog that had been missing for two weeks was rescued by Menlo Park firefighters on July 16 after a 911 caller spotted the animal entering the San Francisco Bay near the Dumbarton Bridge in East Palo Alto, according to the Menlo Park Fire Protection District.
The dog had been missing since the Fourth of July holiday weekend, the fire district said. Rescuers first located the animal from the ground using binoculars, then deployed a drone while pursuing it from the water. The department used at least two trucks, a boat and an airboat in the operation.
The dog “just kept swimming,” the fire district wrote in an Instagram post.
Both fire and police personnel assisted in the rescue, according to the department. The department released footage of the effort on social media showing the animal being toweled off by firefighters.
Authorities turned the dog over to the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (SPCA), which located the animal’s family and returned the pet.
“Dog and family have been reunited,” the fire district’s Instagram post reads.