It's a bird! It's a plane! It's — actually a thermal imaging drone and it could be looking for your pet.
When Philip Foree, of Bloomington, bought a DJI-manufactured M30T drone a few years ago, his original plan had been to help hunters find fallen deer they couldn't otherwise locate.
But the Illinois Department of Natural Resources determined that kind of drone use "unlawful" and against "the spirit of fair chase and widely accepted hunting ethics," so Foree was forced to pivot.
"I had actually seen a video on YouTube, interestingly enough, of somebody using that for pet rescue and I jumped all in," Foree said in an interview for WGLT's Sound Ideas. "That was in January 2024."
Foree repurposed the drone and accessories to start Eye in the Sky Thermal Drone Pet Rescue, an effort to turn the equipment into a lost-pet-finding machine.
The first rescue was in Bloomington-Normal — a beagle named Big Boy. Working with a pet rescuer from Pet Central Helps, Foree said he used the drone to spot the dog so that he could be caught and returned to his owner.
It would be the first of many such rescues.
"Every situation is different. Every dog is different. Different dog breeds have different tendencies; depending on the size of the dog, they go different distances away from home or where they've been lost from," he said. "Circumstances surrounding that can change how far they go. It's always fluid. It's just a dynamic thing that we try to deal with the best we can."
There was a big learning curve. Flying the drone and using its thermal detection camera to spot a lost dog was one thing; rescuing the dog was another. At first when he went out, Foree would have owners approach the dog and call out its name.
"The dog would look at him and take off and bold in the opposite direction. These are dogs that have been with owner for years and years and in their backyard, they'll call the dog and the dog comes running," Foree said. "But when they leave, when they get out, they get panicked, sometimes, and something flips in their brain."
Now, having learned from other pet rescuers, Foree said operations are a little more logistical and intentional. The drone is used to track a dog or other animal's heat signature. Then he'll flip the camera to take actual video to confirm the heat signature belonged to the missing dog.
Once the dog is located via drone, he'll figure out wind direction and try to put the owner downwind of the dog. If that doesn't work, live trapping might be used as a back-up.
The operations are all a combination of lived experience — Foree said he's logged some 500 hours using the drone to locate pets — and knowledge picked up from people across the state who practice pet rescuing. Most recently, he's partnered with Joe Gienow of Peoria Pet Trap Team in an effort to establish a 501c3 nonprofit.
"Our goal is simply to reunite lost pets with their families. So I'm going to continue what I'm doing; Joe is going to support us with live-trapping and we're going to grow a network of rescuers and use that drone to its full capability," he said.
Ultimately, the goal is to speed up some of the rescues and expand capacity. One dog that Foree joined the rescue efforts for down in Mt. Vernon had been missing for 81 days, something Foree said was likely
preventable had appropriate rescue methods been used from the beginning. Demand has been growing: Foree said he sometimes has two to three people at a time seeking rescue services. Calls have come from all over the state, Indiana and Iowa.
"I'll go just about anywhere to help people. But with more people, it certainly would help us. The drone is such a game-changer: Having more [Federal Aviation Administration] pilots with their Part 107 would certainly help and we are trying to connect with people north, south, east and west."
So far, the services have been free, though donations are especially welcome now as Foree and Gienow work to form the nonprofit and perhaps acquire some large-ticket items to help the operation.
"It's a donation-basis only. I haven't figured out how to tell someone that calls me, that needs help, that I'm not going to come help unless you give me X amount of money. There's absolutely nothing like it," he said of his work. "It's emotional. I don't go out just for one search — I go out on multiple searches and I get to know and care about these people and the animal and build relationships. I've met some really great people that are supportive of what we do."
The American Humane Society estimates around 10 million pets go missing each year. More than six million animals end up in shelters across the country.
Every so often on WGLT, we feature community servants and unsung heroes working to make Bloomington-Normal a better place to live. If you have a suggestion for a More of That Please feature, you can email us at news@wglt.org.
