Three orphaned owls now have a new home, thanks to Anderson firefighters, neighbors and a wildlife expert, who helped to save them.
ANDERSON, S.C. --
Three orphaned owls now have a new home, thanks to Anderson firefighters, neighbors and a wildlife expert, who helped to save them.
The barred owls are believed to be between 4 and 6 weeks old.
Neighbors said the owls' mother was hit by a car and killed. Her babies were born in a tree outside Boulevard Baptist Church in Anderson.
Neighbors worried about their safety because Boulevard can be a very busy road.
"They’re just like a part of our family," said Chuck Lister, who lives across the street from the church. "When we'd call to the babies, they'd come to the hole and just look and watch us the whole time."
Lister and his family called the Anderson City Fire Department for help. Firefighters used their ladder truck to save one of them owls. Another was found on the ground. The third owl was low enough in the tree for a regular ladder to reach it.
Now, the owls are temporarily staying with Linda Hoskinson of Wildlife Rehab of Greenville. Hoskinson said she’s been rehabilitating animals for 32 years.
"[The owls] were a little bit thin, but other than that they are healthy," said Hoskinson.
On Saturday, Hoskinson said she’ll take the owls to the Carolina Raptor Center in North Carolina, where the owls will be raised, taught to hunt and eventually released back into the wild.
Lister said saying goodbye was hard to do, but he’s happy the animals are now safe and sound.
Wildlife Rehab of Greenville is a nonprofit organization. For more information on it or to donate money to help the animals, go to the website at www.wildlife-rehab.com.
Orphaned Owls Find New Home
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