From A Place Called Hope (Facebook)
Just give a hoot and take down the soccer nets when not in use...
This Great Horned Owl is lucky he was found, rescued, and not broken from his ordeal. He is suffering from some soft tissue injuries but should make a full recovery.
A special thanks to Dr Brenton from the Country Companions Veterinary Hospital in Bethany who rescued him. She will be pleased to help with his release when he is ready to go home. Hopefully the net will no longer be in his territory.
We need to do better.. for all of our wildlife. Simple safety checks in our own backyards really makes a difference.
From your experience, does this happen frequently? I mean that an owl gets stuck in some kind of net and injures itself?
It does happen with regularity. The flat, open field of a soccer pitch is a great hunting ground, but the owls don't see the nets.
Nets are used to catch them for banding, but those nets are much more delicate and they're closely monitored to get animals out ASAP before they can hurt themselves.
The soccer net is much thicker and no one is watching it overnight, so they will struggle for hours to try and get free, and their bones are very light so they can fly, so they're nowhere near as strong as our bones.
I see these stories very regularly. This one happened to have a fun picture, but normally they are just of a very disheveled bird or copies of their x-rays showing broken bones.
From FFF Wildlife Center (Instagram)
Things like cast off fishing line are also very serious. That can end up in places not often visited, so animals can be left there until they die.
Birds are very delicate, even the big ones. If they were built tougher, they'd be too heavy to fly. Things that would be nothing to us can be deadly to them. Any injury that hurts their flying ability is a death sentence, as they fly to survive-it's how they hunt. Each failed hunt makes the next one harder as they lose energy. ๐
Thanks for your really good explanation.
I shouldn't have asked. Stupid fragile birds. Now I'm sad... but I learned something today.
I am glad you asked.
If you asked, that means other people are also thinking the same question but not asking.
I avoid diving into the negative stuff here to keep it a happy place, but it is important to be aware of these things. It allows us to make wiser choices that keep our animal friends safer.
Here are some happy rescued owls to offset the sad part:
:)
It's perfectly fine (at least for me) if you also show the negative aspects from time to time.
I'll keep my eye out for something not too graphic and I will try it to see what the reaction is.
It's definitely educational, but there have been a few things I'd have been ok not seeing. Maybe I can find something to read about the treatment process to go with it to make it more about that than the injury itself.