By Khalida Sarwari
A Monterey County humane society tonight set free a recovered barn owl found tangled in fishing line and hanging off the roof of a home in Salinas last month.
The SPCA for Monterey County released the bird at a home in Markham Ranch in Salinas after a nearly three-week recovery period. The rural community is a great habitat for barn owls, humane society spokeswoman Beth Brookhouser said.
The barn owl was found on Dec. 17 at a home on El Paso Place, where it had gotten tangled up in fishing line and was hanging from the roof, Brookhouser said. An SPCA crew borrowed a ladder from the home’s residents to rescue the bird.
The owl did not suffer any fractures or dislocations in the incident, but was placed on bed rest and given pain and anti-inflammatory medication at a rehab center in Salinas to heal its drooping left wing.
“The recovery process was slower than we expected,” Brookhouser said. “But we wanted to make sure the owl could fly freely and turn in both directions before we released it.”
The SPCA for Monterey County is a nonprofit, independent, donor-supported humane society that has been serving the animals and people of Monterey County since 1905.