Gardaí praised for coming to the aid of injured owl

Local gardaí have been praised for coming to the aid of an injured owl yesterday (Wednesday) evening.

The stunning long eared owl was brought to Mullingar Garda Station by a concerned member of the public who came upon it and notice that it had a head injury. After consulting with Kildare Wildlife Rescue, gardaí drove the animal up to MiNightVet in Kildare Town for treatment. It is currently recoving in Kildare Animal Resucue's base.

Speakig to the Westmeath Examiner, Dan Donoher of Kildare Wildflife Rescue praised the member of the public who found the owl and local gardaí for their efforts

“The owl was found yesterday evening by a member of the public. They didn't know what to do with it so handed it in to the local garda station. They got in touch and we arranged for them to bring it up to MiNightVet, which is close to us.

“It suffered a head injury and had a bloodied beak but otherwise was in good form. It also has a bit of concussion and is on some medication, but is in pretty good shape and has no fractures.

“It obviously hit something like a widow or some part of a building [when it was flying] and hit it head on. We don't see a lot of owls. We would get a lot of birds coming in with concussion, but generally not owls.

“They [Mullingar Gardaí] were very good to bring him up. They could have said it had nothing to do with them. Everyone did their bit for biodiversity. We are going through a bit of biodiversity crisis and they did their bit to help our native wildlife.”

The owl will spend around 10 days at the animal rescue in Kildare Town, before being released back into the wild in Westmeath.