Anne Arundel County police received an unusual call for help after a motorist struck a wild animal — but it wasn’t a deer.Anne Arundel County police Cpl. Brian Slattery and PFC Patrick Madera will not ever forget the unusual call for help they responded to late Sunday night after a barred owl was struck by a car on Fair Haven Road near the Calvert County line.”I wasn’t expecting it,” Slattery said. “Somebody was driving, obeying all the rules of the road (when) the owl swept down. My hypothesis is it was going after some pray a little mouse or something, and the bird swept down and struck the front of the vehicle.””(I) get there (and) find the driver is still on scene, which is amazing. They called us and said they hit this owl and they stayed on scene. They actually had the owl in their vehicle when I arrived on the scene,” Madera said. “We could see that it was harmed a little bit in the accident. I couldn’t tell if there was anything wrong with its wings. Its wings seemed perfectly fine.”Madera was able to re-wrap the owl in a blanket from his patrol car and the two officers stayed with the animal until help arrived from a nearby wildlife bird sanctuary. “It was pretty docile, which was an amazing thing. We were afraid it was going to fly away. It did stretch its wings a few times, but we were just managing it, wrapping it up and kind of holding it like a football, which was interesting,” Madera said.”Sometimes, we get calls for deer in the southern county, could be cows on the roadway. There was a goat (once). But it was nice to have an owl, and to be that close, and I didn’t realize how soft they actually are,” Slattery said.”It was amazing, great experience. Great to help a member of our community that we didn’t expect,” Madera said.The officers have been trying to check in with the rescue organization to see how the owl is doing, but so far there’s no word. They are certainly hoping that the animal is OK.
Anne Arundel County police received an unusual call for help after a motorist struck a wild animal — but it wasn’t a deer.
Anne Arundel County police Cpl. Brian Slattery and PFC Patrick Madera will not ever forget the unusual call for help they responded to late Sunday night after a barred owl was struck by a car on Fair Haven Road near the Calvert County line.
“I wasn’t expecting it,” Slattery said. “Somebody was driving, obeying all the rules of the road (when) the owl swept down. My hypothesis is it was going after some pray a little mouse or something, and the bird swept down and struck the front of the vehicle.”
“(I) get there (and) find the driver is still on scene, which is amazing. They called us and said they hit this owl and they stayed on scene. They actually had the owl in their vehicle when I arrived on the scene,” Madera said. “We could see that it was harmed a little bit in the accident. I couldn’t tell if there was anything wrong with its wings. Its wings seemed perfectly fine.”
Madera was able to re-wrap the owl in a blanket from his patrol car and the two officers stayed with the animal until help arrived from a nearby wildlife bird sanctuary.
“It was pretty docile, which was an amazing thing. We were afraid it was going to fly away. It did stretch its wings a few times, but we were just managing it, wrapping it up and kind of holding it like a football, which was interesting,” Madera said.
“Sometimes, we get calls for deer in the southern county, could be cows on the roadway. There was a goat (once). But it was nice to have an owl, and to be that close, and I didn’t realize how soft they actually are,” Slattery said.
“It was amazing, great experience. Great to help a member of our community that we didn’t expect,” Madera said.
The officers have been trying to check in with the rescue organization to see how the owl is doing, but so far there’s no word. They are certainly hoping that the animal is OK.
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