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When Drucie Turner of Martins Creek lost her 13-year-old dog, Rumor, late on Christmas Day, she began a frantic search for her beloved 30-pound whippet short-hair. She offered a $1,000 reward. She hired tracking dogs out of Asheville. And for weeks she placed ads in print, online and even on billboards.
In short, Turner did everything possible to get reunited. However, on Feb. 2, with Rumor gone for 40 days in frigid weather, she tearfully suspended her campaign. There have been no updates since then.
As someone who has lived with at least one dog for my entire life, I feel for her. My dogs are not just pets, either; they are members of the family, and we treasure the joy and love they bring into our lives.
The closest Turner got to finding Rumor was when she hired a professional drone operator from Georgia to pick up the trail. As reported in the Cherokee Scout, the drone operator, using an infrared camera, identified what could have been Rumor curled up in the woods off of Caney Creek Road in Ranger.
The animal spotted was bigger than a possum and smaller than a deer, but the drone’s battery was low and there wasn’t time for a positive identification. However, on the drone’s way back to have a fresh battery installed, someone shot at it. Shotgun pellets rained down on the operator and his vehicle.
As you might expect, that was enough for the drone operator. His drone cost $18,000, and he didn’t want to risk getting shot at again, so he left. And with him also left any chance of Turner finding her lost dog.
“Tonight was by far the scariest experience I’ve ever had in my life and am still shaken up by it,” Mike Snyder, owner of Top Gun Drone Services LLC, posted on social media immediately following the local shooting. “I am pretty shook but not down and out, yet.”
Snyder employs commercial-grade thermal drones, equipped with heat-sensing cameras, to detect warm-blooded animals from 250-300 feet in the air. Alas, that wasn’t the last time he would be in the line of fire with one of his drones.
On June 15, while searching for a dog named Ruby in Jackson County, gunfire again erupted as his drone flew over private property, despite being at a high altitude well above nearby homes.
“As soon as I spotted Ruby, somebody started shooting at my drone,” Snyder told the Athens Banner-Herald. This time, the shooter admitted to firing after being annoyed by the drone’s presence, but claimed he targeted a sand pile, per the incident report.
No charges were filed in Cherokee nor Jackson counties.
Drone XL reported last week that Snyder’s persistence, despite gunfire risks, underscores the potential of drones in solving real-world problems. Yet, the industry must address safety and public perception to ensure operators like him can work without fear.
In other words, let’s all be good neighbors and live by the Golden Rule. Don’t shoot first and ask questions later. Next time, it could be your beloved dog that’s missing and in need of rescue.
David Brown is publisher of the Cherokee Scout. You can reach him by phone, 828-837-5122; email, dbrown@cherokeescout.com; or on X @daviddBstroh.