Animal rescuer uses drones to save hurt animals after natural disasters
Animal rescuer and cinematographer Douglas Thron’s passion for animals began when he was a little kid. “I started rescuing orphaned baby animals,” Thron tells Yahoo Life. “And I wanted to be a wildlife cinematographer.”
At the time of the Paradise fire in California in 2018, Thron was working as a cinematographer filming a man who was rescuing cats using an infrared handheld camera. The camera uses heat to detect the animals at night. Thron and the man talked about how incredible it would be to put one on a drone to detect animals more easily. “The animal’s body temperature will glow on the screen and you can pick them out amongst the rubble,” explains Thron.
The first animal Thron ever rescued was a dog in the Bahamas after a category 5 hurricane hit, which “wiped out hundreds of houses,” he says. Thron tested out putting an infrared scope on a drone and found the dog “literally in the middle of the giant debris pile where hundreds of houses had been smashed,” he says. “I flew the drone over and I found him. I was able to rescue him. And nobody claimed him after 30 days so I adopted him, and he’s a super wonderful dog.”
Thron adds that he’s basically been “going non-stop since then.” His TV show, Doug to the Rescue, shows some of his heartwarming animal rescues, including after Hurricane Laura in Louisiana in 2020 and after fires in Northern California and Oregon. Thron also helped rescue koalas after fires ravaged parts of Australia in 2020, using infrared-equipped drones for the first time there to help locate the animals.
Thron’s dream is to one day have an animal rescue ranch where he can train others on flying drones and “hopefully makes these infrared drones as popular for rescuing animals as helicopters are for rescuing people after a disaster,” he says.
Video Transcript
DOUGLAS THRON: When you're flying the drone over a big disaster you can get a real feel for how extensive the disaster is. You definitely get inspired to drop everything to help as much as possible. The feeling I get when I rescue an animal is definitely an incredible feeling, so it just keeps me going.
My passion for animals began pretty much when I was a little kid. I started rescuing orphaned baby animals, and I wanted to be a wildlife cinematographer. I was a for shows like "Shark Week" for Discovery Channel filming the great white sharks off the coast of Santa Cruz and Nat Geo doing aerial cinematography. Paradise fires is kind of pushed me to do an animal rescue activism work. When you see these disasters, you know, you have the initial animals that were killed from the fire, and then you have a ton of animals that will then starve because their habitat is no longer suitable. I was working as a cinematographer filming a guy that was rescuing cats.
Hey, Sweetie. There you are.
He was using an infrared handheld scope, a camera that detects heat, to find the cats at night, and we got to talking about how incredible it would be if we could put one on a drone. The ground will be cooler and then the animal's body temperature will glow on the screen, and you can pick them out amongst the rubble. The first rescue was a dog. I was out in the Bahamas and there was a category five hurricane that hit and wiped out hundreds of houses, and I tested out putting an infrared scope on a drone. A dog was literally in the middle of this giant debris pile of where hundreds of houses have been smashed, and I flew a drone over and I found him. Oh, poor sweetheart, you poor little creature. Come on. There you go. I was able to rescue him, and nobody claimed him after 30 days. So I adopted him. He's a super wonderful dog. I've been pretty much going nonstop since then.
My TV show "Doug to the Rescue", it's a really heartwarming show, and it's also kind of a historical show because it's showing all these milestones that are happening with this drone technology. Oh, I see one. I'm in Australia, and I'm rescuing koalas. That's never been done before with infrared drones. Cats and dogs in Louisiana after the hurricanes and then back to California and Oregon after the fires rescuing more cats and dogs. It blows me away how many more animals were able to save now and how much faster we can save them.
What inspires me to keep going is pretty much the look on the animal's face. They need our help. Animals that get reunited that were lost, we were rescuing animals after fires, and their bodies are badly burned, and then you see later on in the episode cats and dogs all fat and happy and sitting under Christmas trees and stuff like that. What I hope to do is have an animal rescue ranch where I'm training other people that have a considerable amount of drone flying skills and hopefully make these infrared drones as popular for rescuing animals as helicopters are for rescuing people after a disaster.
