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ST. CLOUD, Minn. (KFGO) – Jonathan McGowan just wants to find lost dogs. The civil engineer from Bloomington has a day job inspecting and engineering bridges, but on his off-hours McGowan has invested time and money into specialized equipment and training that is changing the game when it comes to finding lost pets in the region.
*VIDEO CAN BE FOUND AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS STORY*
Just ask Matt and Maggie Varilek, whose dog Angie managed to escape a grooming appointment in St. Cloud last weekend and was on the run overnight, for about 30 hours. McGowan, who follows several “lost pets” pages on Facebook, saw a post about Angie on Saturday night and messaged Maggie. He said he would be traveling through St. Cloud en route to a job in Park Rapids on Sunday and, if the dog was still missing then and the Varileks wanted his help, he’d be glad to put his thermal drone up to see if he could track her down.
Maggie messaged Jon back Sunday morning. Angie was still missing. There had been sightings but they were very concerned. The longer dogs are missing, they might go into “survival mode,” McGowan says, sometimes getting so agitated that they don’t even recognize their owners from a distance, so time was of the essence.
McGowan started out at a St. Cloud golf course, where the last sighting of Angie had been reported, but he didn’t find any signs of her, so went to another location. Minutes later, another sighting came in – back at the golf course, so McGowan returned. This time, his thermal drone picked up the dog’s heat signature right away – McGowan says it’s possible Angie was hiding under a deck or some other structure which his drone couldn’t see through when he was there the first time. McGowan called Matt, who was searching on foot in the vicinity, and was able to describe Angie’s movements while Matt headed that way.
On the drone video (embedded at the end of this story), Angie can be seen stopping in a tree stand for a few seconds and getting very still, standing at attention. Suddenly she starts running at a full sprint. The drone zooms out and Matt’s heat signature is detected – the owner has gotten within earshot and Angie has heard him calling to her and she is bounding toward him on a fairway. The reunion between relieved owner and pup is captured by the drone. Angie runs in several joyful circles around Matt. McGowan’s work here is done.
McGowan’s interest in using drone technology has evolved over nearly a decade. He started out as a dashcam reviewer with his own YouTube channel. He has also dabbled in security and trail cameras. More recently, he decided to start an LLC named Integral Camera Solutions (ICS), when he realized his equipment and expertise could be used to help find lost pets and that there weren’t many other operators like him in the area. He says the company’s name comes from the idea that cameras can be used for more than just photography. He says he’s currently focusing on the drone pet rescue because it is “very personally rewarding.”
McGowan says he doesn’t charge for his services currently but if people want to donate to his work, they can. Angie’s owners were happy to give him a small token of appreciation after McGowan helped them find her, but McGowan says he knows not everyone can afford to pay him, so he works pro bono if there’s a chance he and his thermal drone can help.
McGowan says because he has another job that takes him to various parts of Minnesota throughout the work week, he can’t guarantee that he will be available for everyone who needs his help. He said he’d be willing to travel regionally if it worked with his schedule, but he might need to start charging to at least cover his travel costs. Eventually, McGowan says, he hopes he can at least recoup the money he’s invested in the equipment.
Many of the Facebook pet rescue groups don’t allow McGowan’s ICS account to respond to posts on their pages, so he relies mostly on word-of-mouth and direct outreach to the people whose posts he happens to see and who he thinks he’ll be able to help, for now. He says there is growing interest in the kind of services he offers, and this weekend’s happy ending of Angie being reunited with her humans might have been just the proof-of-concept needed to bring thermal drones into the mainstream of pet rescue in the region.
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