Great Horned Owl Released Into The Wild After Rescue
JEFFERSON COUNTY, Colo. (CBS4) - A great horned owl is back in the wild after being rescued on the Fourth of July. The owl was found tangled in a fishing line at Harriman Lake Park in Jefferson County.
The Birds of Prey Foundation helped the owl recover from a soft tissue injury before it was released Tuesday night.
Cell phone video captured the moment responders first reached the bird. West Metro firefighters, Wesley Percefull and Michael Brouillette approached it from the bucket of a ladder truck alongside CPW Officer, Jerry Mckee.
"Thanks to a helping hand from [West Metro Fire], we rescued this great horned owl this morning," CPW tweeted. "She had soft tissue damage after being entangled by fishing line."
"I've been on for 22 years so there's a lot of strange calls that i've been on this is probably one of the first where I've had to rescue an owl." Said Brouillette.
It's same case for Percefull. With six years of experience under his belt and many unique calls, this was a first.
"I was excited about it because I was like- okay cool she's not hung up that bad," said Percefull.
Both call it an unfortunate but preventable accident and hope it causes anglers to be more mindful about where they cast.
"...and understand that even our presence has an effect and in this case it was nesting owls, a mother and father owl and had little owlettes. Luckily today had a good outcome," said Brouillette.
"In this particular case the fishing line was up in a tree," officials said.
