Overview
- A witness at Cooley Landing Park in East Palo Alto called 911 after seeing the dog run into the water, and officers and Menlo Park Fire crews began searching the shoreline and marshes.
- Firefighters first spotted the pup with binoculars and then used a drone to pinpoint its position roughly a half-mile offshore.
- A Menlo Park Fire airboat crew pulled the exhausted dog from the Bay, wrapped it in a coat, and brought it back to shore for an initial exam.
- Rescuers found an open wound on the dog’s left cheek consistent with a seagull strike and turned the animal over to animal-control partners and the Peninsula Humane Society & SPCA, which identified and reunited it with its owners.
- The East Palo Alto Police Department and Menlo Park Fire posted video of the recovery, and the incident highlights growing local use of drones and marine units to locate and recover people and animals from tidal waterways.