HELENA — Anyone with a pet knows that they are family, but when a pet goes missing, it's more important than when a human family member goes missing. There are far fewer resources available to find it. But one company in Helena offers something that can help in these situations: drones.
Molly Holohan experienced it firsthand in December. While her family was bringing groceries into the house, her dog Rosie slipped out of the house.
“It was really bad, I was just crying,” Holohan said of the experience. “We have a 6-year-old daughter. She was very sad. She didn't know if she would see her again or if she would be able to witness it.”
Holohan and her family are doing everything they can to prepare for Rosie's surrender, including contacting the Lewis & Clark Humane Society and animal control groups, posting on Facebook, searching, and tracking information. Measures have been taken.
After several days of not being able to find Rosie, Holohan said she was starting to run out of information.
“At that point our hopes were really starting to fade,” Holohan said.
That's where Kevin Dantz and his drones come in and help change the story from sad to happy.
Danz owns and operates iFLYBIGSKY, a multimedia company specializing in drone photography and video. Danz uses drones to film everything from TV shows to real estate videos. His beautiful photos taken from above in Helena and Montana are garnering views on social media.
Dantz also uses drones for another purpose: helping people find their pets.
“My miniature schnauzer went missing for a day, and it was the worst day,” Dantz said. “So I take that pain and I understand what they're going through.”
Dantz has been using drones to search for lost dogs and even horses for free.
He has a drone with thermal imaging and first-person perspective technology that allows him to search a much larger area than a human could cover on foot.
“Some of our drones can do grid mapping,” Dantz explained. “We can actually take that data and take thousands of photos across 300 acres and send it to software that uses AI to actually look for carcasses, animals, etc. can.”
These resources in the sky gave Holohan something important: hope.
“It was such a relief to know that someone else was monitoring and covering such a large area,” Holohan said.
In addition to drones, Dantz uses his social media following as another resource. He posted Rosie's information on his iFLYBIGSKY Facebook account, which has about 7,000 followers. That post led to information that sent Rosie home.
“It was amazing,” Holohan said of reuniting with Rosie.
Dantz said seeing people reunited with his pets is everything to him.
“I'm so glad they got their family back,” Dantz said.
