THE NEW YORK TIMES – Chad Tavernia was at home in Malone, N.Y., one Saturday in January when he received a call from a couple whose puppy had escaped their yard. They had searched the snowy woods behind their home, but the puppy, Aurora, had vanished.
Nearly a day had gone by and temperatures were below freezing. The couple, Paul Conto and Kathern McPherson, were desperate to know: Could Mr. Tavernia find Aurora?
Such calls are common for Mr. Tavernia, 44, the founder of North Country Drone Search & Recovery, a small business he runs using his drone to find missing pets.
So he drove about seven miles to the couple’s home in Burke, N.Y., and launched his thermal-imaging drone into the sky.
Drone Operator Locates Lost Puppy in Deep Snow | Credit…North Country Drone Search & Recovery, via Storyful
After about 90 minutes, the drone detected a heat signal in a cornfield nearly 3.5 miles away.
It was Aurora, an American bully-golden retriever mix, nestled deep in the snow. Speaking to Mr. Conto over the phone, Mr. Tavernia guided him to her location, and she was brought home safely that day.
“I was confident I’d be able to find her,” Mr. Tavernia said.
Most of the calls Mr. Tavernia receives are for missing dogs, he said, but there have been some calls for missing cats, too. In the past year, he has found 42 dogs.
“I am looking for somebody’s pet that they love dearly,” he said. “There is actually a vulnerable animal out there whose life is in the balance.”
Mr. Tavernia, a retired New York State Police investigator, purchased a thermal-imaging drone in November 2023. He started a Facebook page to post pictures of the bobcats, deer and other wild animals he would find with his drone. Then, in January 2024, he received a call from a woman in Berkshire, Vt., whose dog had been missing for six days.
Mr. Tavernia drove to Vermont and drew on his police skills, collecting every detail about the dog — a Vizsla named Otis — and its last known movements. “I said, ‘If I can get this drone over top of the dog, I can almost guarantee I will find him,’” Mr. Tavernia recalled.
