Great horned owl rehabilitated by the Black Hills Raptor Center – Courtesy: Scott Jacobs via Cowboy State Daily
From the Cowboy State Daily comes the story of a rural community flocking to the side of an injured owl and rescuing it from a dreadful fate.
The story begins when Sharon and Scott Jacobs were driving past private land in Spearfish, South Dakota, and Scott saw something he thought was a hawk—in, on, or around—a barbed wire fence. Sharon, an animal lover, asked her husband to back up so she could have a closer look.
She walked up toward the lump of what were clearly feathers and realized that Scott’s “dead hawk” was actually a living great horned owl. What followed resembled a game of hot potato that saw half a village pitch in to rescue and rehabilitate this majestic bird.
She called up to her husband that it was an owl, and stood as near as she dared, calmly reassuring it as she would her rescued horse back home.
They needed a bag to put over the owl’s head—a trick to keep any animal calm—and some gloves. Scott had a black bag, but no gloves. At that moment, another driver stopped and asked what was the matter. Scott explained, and asked if the driver, named Brandon, had any gloves; to which he replied that he did.
The two rejoined Sharon, put a bag on the owl’s head, and with some semblance of protection from the bird’s talons began to try and untwist it from the barbed wire just as the landowner’s daughter showed up.
Now it was Sharon who jogged up to the burgeoning parking lot to describe the situation, saying the best way to free the bird was to cut the wire. The daughter called her father, who responded that yes, they ought to cut the bird free right away.
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But they needed wirecutters. Did they have any? Brandon had them.
Thus the team of 3 with a 4th on the phone, freed the owl. Sharon immediately took it to her veterinarian, who agreed to meet them and examine the bird at his office. 4 then became 5.
The veterinarian dislodged two steel barbs, and explained that the bird would be able to fly again. Sharon then called every wildlife center nearby to ask which was best equipped to handle a wounded owl. Black Hills Raptor Center was the place.
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“Everybody’s goal was to get this beautiful creature taken care of,” Sharon Scott told Cowboy State Daily, recounting the rescue op. The Raptor Center said it will be best to release the owl in the same area it was found, and Scott said she has “every intention of being there.”
“And I know I’ll cry.”
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