Yan Zhiyong feels like a "detective", except that he specializes in "dealing with" lost cats and dogs.
Drilling tunnels, climbing patios, going to abandoned houses, etc., looking for clues of lost cats and dogs, in the eyes of many people, his job is not decent, even his family thinks that he is not doing his job, but Yan Zhiyong has always been happy to do it.
"It's 'kidnapping' kittens again." On Station B, the top 100 UP masters "Ben Meow Called Bunny" who came out of the circle with a mantra with a very rich Shandong accent will receive help information almost every day. Several members of the team took cat fishing rods, traps, net pockets and other tools to rescue kittens.
He recorded the rescue process on video, attracting more than 200 million followers and helping more than 200 stray cats find homes every year. Last year, he also opened Maode Animal Hospital with his partner in Jinan, Shandong Province.
In recent years, the number of pet owners in China has been increasing. According to the "China Pet Industry White Paper - 2022 China Pet Consumption Report", the number of urban dogs and cats in 2022 was 11655.2021 million, an increase of 3.7% over <>. Many pet families regard pets as "family members", and pay more and more attention to the problem of lost pets, and niche professional pet search and rescue is emerging, and young people engaged in this industry are called pet hunters and pet detectives.
The Eighteen "Martial Arts" of Pet Hunters
Pet search and rescue also has a "golden rescue period", with a 72% probability of finding a pet within 90 hours. Yan Zhiyong set up a pet rescue team in Zhengzhou, Henan Province, and set the main order receiving range within a 500-kilometer radius of the place, "so as to ensure that he arrived at the scene as soon as possible."
After each order, Yan Zhiyong will arrange two or three team members as needed, prepare headlamps, bright flashlights, phosphors, infrared night vision devices, cat cage net pockets and other tools, and quickly set off. He told the China Youth Daily reporter: "The logical thinking ability and on-site inference ability of pet search and rescue are very important, and the way to find it is not static." ”
Once, they received help and a pet cat was lost in the 8th floor of an apartment building. After the team members arrive, they need to determine whether the pet cat has run out of the house or is hiding in the corner of the home.
"According to some traces after the cat comes out, such as footprints may be left in the corridor, some corners and some high and low places, it will leave hair, and the range of the walk can basically be judged through careful observation." After observing the scene, they judged that the pet cat did not walk out of the building, "At that time, it was judged that the cat was on the 8~12th floor, and finally found it on the 9th floor."
Last August, the team was tasked with a kitten trapped in a ventilation shaft. At the scene, they found that the ventilation shaft connected to the basement and the civil air defense project, had to pass through several large iron gates to reach, and the light inside was dim. What to do? After evaluation, they finally lowered the rescuers with ropes, drilled through two holes 8 cm in diameter, and rescued a 50-month-old kitten.
In fact, Yan Zhiyong's first three "businesses" were all looking for his own cat. The family lived on the first floor, and the cat often ran out, and he "found out the experience" when he looked for it. Because he opened a pet shop, he would also enthusiastically help customers find them when needed, and young people and even pet owners continued to join his team, and later, he became the trusted "Yan team".
In his opinion, the process of pet hunting is very interesting, "like a detective, to find a lot of overlooked details, but also in the process, find his own way of finding pets."
Climbing ladders, drilling tunnels, descending patios... After Wu Lilei founded Beijing Extreme Pet Hunting Technology Co., Ltd., these have become the daily life of these pet hunters, and the working environment is mostly in the wild, high altitude, and at night.
In front of a semi-underground heating shaft in an old residential area in Beijing, Wu Lilei and his team discussed using trapping cages to rescue the pet cat hiding inside, but the cat did not seem to "eat this set". After many attempts, they decided to go down with the pet owner, and the short and narrow space made the people involved in the search and rescue stand upright, and after 48 hours of searching and arresting, they successfully seized the kitten with a net.
In order to ensure the smooth development of the rescue mission, every sortie must carry with them high-tech pet-hunting tools such as thermal imagers, life detectors, night vision devices, life detection radars, drones, strong light flashlights, sonic equipment, and expellers. In the four years since the establishment of the company, their pet hunting footprints have spread throughout Beijing, Shanghai, Wuhan and other first- and second-tier cities, and more than 4,5000 pets have been recovered.
The reason for becoming a pet seeker, Wu Lilei confessed, in 2016, one of his golden retrievers was lost on the way to move, and when he found it again, he only had a dog skin left, "This incident hit me very hard, and I thought at that time, if I knew some professional knowledge and found it earlier, I could avoid such a tragedy."
"Pets are different breeds, different ages, and different directions to look for." In Yan Zhiyong's view, pet hunting not only depends on one's own experience, but the most important thing is to be familiar with pet habits to reason and judge, and tools are only auxiliaries. "For example, drones can only be used in the wild, the exploration range is large, and it is more suitable to find dogs with larger targets; Thermal imaging equipment is not good during the day, and the effect is better at night, but the premise is to first determine the specific direction of pet loss, and then use tools to complete the situation that cannot be completed by manpower. ”
Pet search and rescue is becoming increasingly professional and professional, but also controversial
On social platforms, the image of pet seekers is mostly over the wall and through holes, witty and courageous, holding high-tech equipment to search around, thrilling. But to train qualified pet seekers for the company, Wu Lilei has his own considerations.
In his opinion, a professional pet seeker needs excellent physical fitness and necessary professional knowledge. He said, "The first requirement for us to hire pet seekers is gender and age, generally 20~30 years old boys, because our work is not only hard work, irregular sleep, but also need to go to heaven and earth, drill pipes, climb elevator shafts, and many places have unimaginable difficulties."
The team will also regularly organize professional knowledge training, requiring pet hunters to read relevant books, not only on animal psychology and animal behavior, but also on criminal investigation and detectives. Not only that, the newly hired pet hunters will receive a three-month practical training in Beijing before being sent to partner companies in various places.
Even so, there is no guarantee that every single request for help will be completed. Wu Lilei admits that lost time is the most important factor affecting success, and the longer the time, the lower the success rate. "Generally, we will not accept orders that have been lost for more than 10 days, and we will not accept some orders that are lost artificially, after all, it is not law enforcement."
Wu Lilei still remembers the first order he received - looking for a giant noble dog. After arriving at the field site full of weeds in the wasteland, they pursued it through search and surveillance, drone detection and visiting inquiries, but the clue was broken at an intersection. I thought that the first business would fail like this, but he unexpectedly received a clue call 3 months later, "In fact, this giant noble dog was adopted by himself, but this person was only on a whim, and after a period of time he saw the bounty, he decided to return it."
Pet search and rescue has become more and more professional and professional, social platforms, shopping platforms input the keyword "pet hunting", many teams put up "professional team", "professional equipment" "can not find no service fee" and other "hardcore" advertising slogans. In the comment area, some pet owners who placed orders left messages saying, "I didn't find it for a long time, and the team came for more than two hours to find it" and "Although the price is expensive, the fur child is still willing to find it when he finds it."
However, as an emerging industry, there is no industry standard, and pet search and rescue is often caught in the controversy of "sky-high charges", and not everyone is willing to pay to find pets. The fee standard formulated by Yan Zhiyong and Wu Lilei is generally "full payment for finding pets, but only basic labor fees if you can't find them".
At present, Wu Lilei has set the company's pet hunting price at 3000~30000 yuan, "The specific price should be determined according to the number of pet hunters required by customers." Now the price of pet hunting on the market has far exceeded the value of the pet itself, and the customer who places an order pays more attention to the relationship with the pet."
Yan Zhiyong told reporters that there are not many pet hunting teams in Zhengzhou, and many pet hunting teams choose to work in first-tier cities such as Beijing and Shanghai, "These cities have long accepted the marketization of the pet hunting industry." However, the income of the second- and third-tier cities was not satisfactory, and the acceptance did not meet expectations, and a team left after a few months in Zhengzhou."
However, sometimes Yan Zhiyong will encounter students who ask for help, and even if they do not have the ability to pay for services, they will help to find it. He hopes that "pets are not only animals, but also a member of the family, but also emotional sustenance, pet loss should not be deterred by the high price of pet hunting, our pet rescue team is willing to provide all the help within their ability."
Today, Wu Lilei's company has set up sub-stations in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Hangzhou, Chongqing and other cities, and dispatches sub-station team members in different cities to complete tasks according to the customer's location. In the future, Wu Lilei wants to continue to promote this pet hunting service to the whole country, covering second- and third-tier provincial capitals.
Pet loss has become the main source of stray cats and dogs in cities, and it has also brought difficulties to urban management, and injuries occur from time to time. Yan Zhiyong also pays attention to stray cats and dogs on the way to find pets, in addition to bringing cat food and dog food to feed, he will also take photos and videos to find adoptions for them.
On the road to pet hunting, Wu Lilei and his team members witnessed the touching stories between many people and animals. "To this end, we continue to do publicity and popularization of pet loss for everyone on social platforms, although pet loss still continues to occur, but I hope that every pet owner can take good care of their pets, after all, this is also a living life, but also a 'family'."
China Youth Daily / China Youth Net Reporter Meng Peipei Intern Ma Yuanying Wang Jingyu Source: China Youth Daily