Dog Owner Uses Drone to Walk His Dog During CCP Virus Lockdown, and the Internet Loves It

(Illustration - Shutterstock)

With many countries around the world going on full or partial lockdowns, dog owners are left wondering how they are supposed to give their canines a chance to stretch their legs and answer the call of nature. One intrepid dog lover in Limassol, Cyprus, has gone viral with his unique solution: using a drone to walk his dog.

On March 18, 2020, Vakis Demetriou posted a video on Facebook with the caption, “5th day quarantine. Stay home safe but don’t forget your dog’s happiness.” The video shows his dog Oliver on a leash connected to a drone on a walk down an empty street while Cypriots stay home due to a government-ordered lockdown.

Demetriou’s creative solution earned thousands of likes and sparked a vibrant discussion about the idea, with some commenters arguing that it was dangerous to entrust one’s pooch to a drone, while others just enjoyed the chance for a laugh.

Demetriou’s video came at just the right time for many Cypriots who are responding to President Nicos Anastasiades’s order to stay home, issued on Monday, March 23, 2020. In an address to the nation, the president said, “We are truly at war, and this isn’t won by enlisting our children to give or take lives by means of arms. It’s a war which can only be won if we batten down the hatches.”

View of a closed-down street. (Illustration - Getty Images | IAKOVOS HATZISTAVROU)

Demetriou’s choice of dog-walking method inspired lots of jokes about the ever-expanding role of drones in contemporary society, with captions from some news media such as Yahoo! reading, “They’re Taking Over.”

The issue of dog-walking, however, is not to be taken lightly in large cities undergoing self-isolation to slow the spread of the CCP virus. In places hard hit by the virus, such as Spain, citizens are supposed to leave their places of residence only in cases of absolute necessity, giving dog owners a welcome loophole to go outside.

The exception for walking dogs has made many even more grateful for their canine best friends and others wishing they had dogs of their own to get some fresh air with. As Luis Fe, a Madrid-based owner of a Border Collie, told The Local, “You go out more often but for less time,” adding that owners often go out “just because they can, or because they are bored at home.”

Some enterprising Spaniards have even put their dogs up for rent online for petless city dwellers who need a reason to break the isolation. One person even posted a picture of his dog Bali with a sign around the pooch’s neck reading, “I’m on offer to walk humans for the next 15 days.”

This photo from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows a microscopic view of the Coronavirus at the CDC in Atlanta, Georgia. (©Getty Images)

Other dog owners found the idea of renting out their dog to perfect strangers very problematic. “That’s a nightmare,” said Alicia Barrientos, “for other people’s health and for the dog itself who’s going out with a person they don’t know.”

Regardless of whether the dog being walked is one’s own or another’s, only one person is allowed out at a time, and they must clean up after their dogs with water and detergent, per Spanish emergency law. Whether or not the drone idea catches on, though, people certainly seem to have enjoyed the much-needed reason to laugh in the midst of the pandemic.

The Epoch Times refers to the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19, as the CCP virus because the Chinese Communist Party’s coverup and mismanagement allowed the virus to spread throughout China and create a global pandemic.