Pet owner’s two week ordeal after beloved dog went missing from pet couriers
Milo the five-year-old terrier survived a staggering 17 days alone in the suburbs surrounding Melbourne's Tullamarine Airport.
A selfless volunteer who helped coordinate a massive search effort to locate lost dog Milo has described the heartwarming moment the little animal was finally found, 17 days after he went missing from pet couriers at Melbourne Airport.
The five-year-old terrier was headed to the United Kingdom on March 18 with his owner Jason Whatnall, but managed to evade the care of handlers at AeroPets Animal Transport at Tullamarine Airport while he was being moved from his cage.
AeroPets said it advised the owners of what happened immediately, who then came in and helped with the search for a few hours. "The owners of Milo then took a flight out of Australia," the company told media.
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In the days that followed staff were deployed to the area and had "handed out hundreds of flyers to neighbourhoods and businesses" to assist, and even "put food and cameras out at night".
A distressed Whatnall contacted Melbourne woman Bianca Jade — who has been an administrator of the community group Lost Pets North and Inner Suburbs for the past decade — who helped facilitate an almost three week-long search effort in the Tullamarine area.
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Professional animal rescuer Nigel Williamson was also called in, setting up a cage and playing a recording of Whatnall’s voice over a speaker in the hope of luring Milo in.
After weeks of sightings but no solid evidence, the team were becoming desperate, knowing that little Milo would likely be starving and dehydrated.
Speaking to Yahoo News Australia, Bianca said it wasn't until day 16 when they finally made progress, spotting Milo's footprints in a paddock. "We started getting some people ringing up saying that they'd seen him [in a field]...so we went out and looked," she said.
"I'd just been there the other day, to check the cameras we had set up and that's when we had our first sighting of him on the camera.
"A person from AeroPets had put some food out near, and Milo had come out just after he left, and ate the food. It probably was only a 10 second snippet [on camera]— and then he was gone again. That was like our first proper sighting."
Milo found in field of shipping containers
Bianca said Milo had "figured out the whole field" in which he was eventually located on Thursday night, finding his own little hiding spots in shipping containers.
"We hadn't canvassed that area with flyers or anything, because we didn't think he was there. We didn't know. So we set that the dog trap up that evening," she recalled. "Prior to that, both myself and the guy from AeroPets were just walking around this field and we thought, 'oh, we'll put a food station down here because there's heaps of footprints'.
"And we came back around and we saw some ravens, and I was like, 'what's that?' and he's like, 'what?' and I said 'what's that under the ravens, what is that? Is that a fox?' And he's said 'it's Milo'.
Having walked himself into the dog trap, Milo had lost about a kilo of weight when he was located, was dehydrated and presented with a temperature, though overall his condition wasn't too bad, Bianca said, adding that she spoke with Whatnall on the phone earlier today, who she said was ecstatic.
Dog owner thanks those involved in massive search effort
Posting on social media, Whatnall thanked all involved for their incredible efforts.
"Bianca Jade has seriously been amazing," he said. "So many hours on the scene, checking food stations, camera footage and more. Can't thank you enough for taking the time to help find Milo."
Little Milo was rushed to a vet after being located. He'll be given a few days to recover before he's flown over to the UK next week.
"Jason was contacted by the CEO of another pet company called Petraveller, which was just around the corner from AeroPets," Bianca said. "They said they would fly Milo over there for free, so Milo went to the vet and the guy from AeroPets went and stayed there with him, it was pretty late at night by the time he got there.
Milo to be flown to UK next week
"Today he's being moved under the care of Petraveller and he's with one of the handlers there and they're looking after him. So they're gonna let him decompress for a couple of days. Get some food into him, getting him drinking, let him settle down.
"And I think they're planning on flying him out possibly Monday, so he should be in the UK by Wednesday."
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