“Save the podencos from the La Palma Volcano”

The three hounds that are isolated in the ponds of Todoque (Los Llanos de Aridane) continue to have a high share of prominence on social networks. And it is that the announcement that Leales.org made a week ago is unleashing an avalanche of solidarity to accelerate a rescue device that in the last hours has led to the arrival in Tenerife of the team that will try to remove the animals from the point in the that have been around for more than three weeks.

Jaime, Borja and Daniel landed yesterday in Tenerife North to activate Operation Save the Podencos. With them came almost 200 kilos of material – Iberia and Iberia Express facilitated the transfer of the cargo from Galicia – which will be shipped early today at the Port of Los Cristianos bound for the palm capital. Why will they travel by sea? Because there are no guarantees of flying to Mazo in the next few hours and, above all, by the two tons that the high-precision devices that will be used in the maneuvers to try to remove the three dogs from the interior of the Todoque cisterns weigh.

Jaime Pereira, CEO of Aerocamaras, Borja Blanco, head of R&D, and Daniel Romero, RPAS technician, are the members of the Pontevedra drone company selected to lead a logistics for which they will not receive an economic return in return. This is one of the six who offered their services to undertake the mission.

Leales.org carefully analyzed the proposals that arrived to increase the chances of success of the plan: in recent days tests with weights of 20 kilos were carried out to measure the effectiveness of the flights (some systems were not taken into account because the characteristics drones were very well suited for aerial imaging, but not for lifting dogs a considerable distance from the ground) and choosing the extraction strategy. At first it was managed to use trapdoor cages, but that option was ruled out due to how unstable the flight could be. Above all, with an agitated animal inside the cabin. As an alternative, which is the one that is going to be put into practice on the Isla Bonita, a network system was planned that will raise the hounds as soon as they are “trapped” in a device that will attract their attention from a meat bait: the dog would be more immobilized within the mesh. In addition to the aforementioned load tests, the autonomy of the drones was also taken into account.

While waiting for this rescue protocol to be activated, the dogs are brought food and frozen water (it is a way to prevent the containers from filling with ashes) several times a day since Leales.org reported that they had been abandoned in an area that was devastated by lava flows. This same organization has activated, through its website, a money donation system with the aim of raising funds so that the different animal protectors based in La Palma can solve the debts they accumulate with veterinarians and establishments specialized in distribution. pet food.