A New Jersey restaurant owner has turned a fleet of high-tech drones into an unlikely rescue operation, helping reunite more than 120 missing animals with their owners while supporting veterans at the same time.

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Michael Parziale, 64, runs the nonprofit Unmanned Search and Rescue (U.S.A.R.) Drone Team from Manasquan, deploying 18 drones to track down lost animals across the state, per the New York Post.

Since launching two years ago, the team has successfully rescued over 122 animals, including dogs, cats and even a cow.

But the project goes beyond finding missing pets.

Parziale created the organisation partly as a tribute to members of his own family who served in the military.

“I’m doing it in honor of my father, who fought in World War II, and my two grandfathers, who fought in World War 1,” Parziale told the Post. “It’s my way of giving back to veterans.

“We do pet rescue to support the veterans in their drone-career training for free. Afterwards, they get jobs doing aerial surveying, agricultural spraying, photography and infrastructure inspections, along with search and rescue careers. You can’t have a nonprofit without profit.”

The idea emerged after Parziale was asked to help search for a mentally handicapped man who had been missing for three days in Toms River.

“A pastor asked if I could come down and try to find him,” Parziale recalled. “I found him in an hour and 18 minutes. He was in a swamp. He was hypothermic, and after a few hours more, he would have expired.”

A request to locate a missing pet followed, and another successful search convinced him that animals could become a major focus.

“It just developed into animals because I became really good at that,” explained Parziale.

One memorable call involved Gina Manfredi’s five-month-old American Bully mix, Shade, who bolted after being startled while heading out for a walk.

With darkness setting in and cold, windy and snowy conditions developing, a 24-hour search failed to locate the puppy. Parziale was eventually contacted and found Shade in just 41 minutes.

“Michael donates his time and expertise to help those who cannot afford to hire a professional, dedicating countless volunteer hours to reuniting families with their pets,” Gina said.

For Parziale, those reunions can become emotional.

“I had one woman who was crying on my shoulder so much my shirt was wet!” he said. “Their pets are like children to them.”

The FAA-licensed drone pilot works alongside his sons Michael John, 27, and Jonathan, 17, as well as a rotating team of five or six volunteers.

He travels anywhere in New Jersey when called and also uses his specialist drones in disaster zones, assisting first responders in identifying floods and landslides following East Coast hurricanes.

Parziale additionally raises money through GoFundMe to fund searches for retired elderly people who may rely heavily on their pets for companionship.

“Every dollar is applied toward that,” said Parziale.

What began with one search has developed into a statewide operation combining technology, animal rescue and free career training for veterans — with 122 successful rescues already behind it.

Featured image credit: Tamron Hall Show / Instagram