Frequently Asked Questions
General
Canine’s Halo is a lost pet search service that uses cutting-edge technologies, such as drones with thermal cameras and ground-based thermal equipment, to locate and reunite lost pets with their families.
While legally structured as an LLC, Canine’s Halo is intended to be a community funded project. Various different models have been attempted, starting with a donation-only based model. The current model is intended to price in 15 – 20% of flights being provided to the community at no charge.
Canine’s Halo is a animal search service, providing expertise in operating best-of-breed technology to locate missing animals. We will make our best effort to locate your missing animal and provide GPS coordinates and/or guide you to the animal.
Many factors affect whether or not a recovery is success
- Environmental Factors: Thermal imagery cannot “see through” the environment. If the animal is hiding in a manner that line-of-sight cannot be achieved, it will not be seen. This includes if the animal is hiding underneath very heavy tree cover, in a drainage pipe, underneath a vehicle, etc
- Animal Temperament: Some animals are too fearful to approach even their owners, and may require trapping
- Animal Behavior: The animal may not be in the area(s) searched. There is quite a bit a value knowing where the animal isn’t
We primarily do searches for dogs, and Canine’s Halo was founded specifically for this purpose.
We have successfully located missing bulls as well as missing horses. These are often the first animals we see when we’re flying in rural areas – their large size and heat signatures makes them ideal search targets.
We have been on a few cat searches with varying degrees of success – cat behavior is not well suited for an aerial search. Our ground equipment is much better suited for this purpose, but does require narrowing down the search area. Please inquire as to how we might be able to assist in a missing cat case.
We even located a missing Kangaroo!
Searching with thermal equipment, as the name might suggest, has a lot to do with temperature. The greater the difference in temperature between the animal and the environment, the easier it is to spot the animal.
Searching for lost pets during the day may seem like a good idea, but here in Central Texas, the intense solar loading makes it impractical. When the sun heats the environment, objects like grass, asphalt, and rocks retain significant heat, blending with an animal’s body temperature and reducing the effectiveness of our thermal camera. This makes it much harder to detect a dog or other animal among the hot surroundings.
Additionally, dogs instinctively seek out cool, shaded areas to escape the heat, often staying hidden and stationary during the hottest parts of the day. They are naturally more active during the cooler periods of sunrise and sunset, which are ideal times for drone searches. These times not only improve the chances of spotting movement but also enhance thermal imaging as the ground begins to cool down.
For the most effective results, we schedule our search missions to align with these optimal windows, ensuring the highest probability of success in locating your pet.
Using a drone can be a game-changer in lost pet recovery, particularly in challenging environments. Drones are ideal for searching areas that are difficult or impossible to access on foot, such as dense wooded areas, creek beds, and overgrown fields—places where lost pets are likely to seek shelter or wander. These areas often pose significant challenges for ground searches but can be covered efficiently from the air.
Drones also excel at quickly covering large areas, which might take hours or even days to search manually. This rapid coverage increases the likelihood of locating your pet before they move further or hide in less visible areas.
The addition of thermal imaging gives drones a critical advantage over optical searches. Unlike optical cameras, which rely on light and can be hindered by shadows or dense vegetation, thermal cameras detect heat signatures. This technology allows us to spot animals even in low visibility conditions, such as at night or in thick brush, where they might otherwise remain hidden.
If your pet is lost in an area with difficult terrain, dense vegetation, or where ground searches would take too long, a drone search is not only warranted—it’s often the most effective option.
- Increased Movement: Lost pets often continue to move, especially in unfamiliar environments. The longer you wait, the farther they may travel, expanding the search area and reducing the chances of recovery.
- Heightened Risks: A lost pet is vulnerable to traffic, predators, and environmental hazards. Acting quickly minimizes these risks and improves the likelihood of finding them safe.
- Reduced Sightings: Witness reports are most reliable immediately after a pet goes missing. Delaying action may result in missed opportunities to follow up on fresh sightings.
- Optimizing Search Technology: Tools like drones and thermal imaging are most effective when deployed promptly before a pet finds an inaccessible hiding spot or moves out of range.
When a pet is lost, time is of the essence. Taking swift action increases the chances of a successful and safe recovery. There is no greater factor that will decrease the odds of a successful and safe recovery than “waiting to see what happens tomorrow”. While some animals can and do return home entirely on their own, there’s no way to say whether yours will be one of those cases.
The odds of finding a missing animal with a consumer drone are extremely low for a number of reasons:
- Search and Rescue is best done using drones equipped with thermal cameras. Animals have evolved to blend in with the environment in the visible spectrum. Even for human search and rescue, where humans are not trying to hide from view, thermal cameras are utilized.
- Consumer camera drones lack the necessary optics to effectively resolve dog-sized animals from 100+ feet in the air.
- Most new operators, even with all the right (thermal) equipment, have a tough time locating their first lost pet. Having the right tools is part of the equation – the other part is knowing how to best utilize them, which is something that comes with experience.
In the context of finding missing or lost animals, searching using a drone that isn’t equipped with thermal sensors is effectively akin to not searching at all and relying entirely on luck. It certainly is possible, but it’s extremely unlikely.
Canine’s Halo is based in NW Hills, Austin, TX, and generally serves an area in a 150 mile radius of Austin.
Evaluated on a case-by-case basis, we may offer services outside this service area. Additional travel and lodging expenses may apply.
We’ve been on several long-distance adventures reuniting lost animals. For instance Bessie in Azle, TX (220 Miles away) was a recent adventure well worth it!
First and foremost, please understand that we are trying to save the life of a living, breathing, feeling animal. To many people that animal is a family member. We’re trying to locate them so that they don’t get injured and so that they don’t cause an injury. We don’t know who you are, and we generally can’t see you (we fly using the thermal camera not the optical camera).
All of our pilots must be licensed by the FAA as Remote UAS pilots, and must abide by all laws, rules, and regulations. If you believe that a pilot is not operating in accordance with the relevant laws, the proper course of action is to relay it to the appropriate authorities. If you believe a law is being broken in any circumstance, the appropriate action is to call local law enforcement.
Our drones are properly registered commercial aircraft. And we are properly licensed commercial pilots. Anyone interfering with a commercial flight in operation may be subject to criminal penalties.
All airspace is solely under FAA jurisdiction. Airspace cannot be owned, including the airspace above private property. The drone is not tresspassing.
The current laws do not distinguish between manned and unmanned aircraft, and as such drones are no different than any other aircraft in FAA regulated airspace.
Attempting to disrupt operations of an aircraft, whether a drone, helicopter, or fixed wing aircraft, may be subject to severe criminal consequences.
Some things to consider:
- Firing a weapon into the air is inherently dangerous
- Should the drone be knocked out of the sky, it will potentially crash into another human or animal, causing severe bodily harm, and be the liability of the person causing the crash
- The drone contains lithium batteries which may explode during such a fall, which would be the liability of the person causing the crash
- Damaging or destroying the drone will result in a civil lawsuit to replace the drone and any losses related to it’s removal from service
Drones are considered aircraft, and attempting to damage or disrupt a commercial aircraft may result in severe criminal consequences
That’s fantastic! I own a technology services company geared at helping street rescues and am interesting in exploring a partnership! Please reach out!
Canine’s Halo’s service fee structure is designed to allow for a percentage of flights to be offered at no cost. The equipment is incredibly expensive, and the operating costs are much more expensive than one would think.
In addition to setting aside portions of every service fee, Canine’s Halo also offers the option of gifting a compassionate flight. This generous act would be followed with full transparency – anybody that does this will have the option of:
- Remaining anonymous. You will be notified who the compassionate flight was assigned to, and be provided with any video or pictures taken, as well as linked to any social media posts about that flight
- Notify Recipient Only. Same as above, however the recipient would know of your generosity but be asked to not share it publicly
- Publicly Thanked. Both of the above, but also be mentioned and thoroughly thanked
If you are interested in gifting a flight to the compassionate flight program, please contact [email protected], or send a Venmo to @canineshalo noting in the description that it’s a pre-paid flight, and how you would like it to be attributed.