Owl Rescued From Illegal Trap in Deerfield

It's not often an animal caught in a deadly trap has a happy ending., but thankfully this one does.

The Department of Environmental Conservation rescued an owl caught in an old illegal foothold trap with no ID tag to show who set it. You must put your name and address or your DEC customer identification number (see your hunting or trapping license) on all your traps. There are many types of foothold traps, but they are all similar to the photo below.

According to the DEC Press Release On Sept. 28, ECOs Steve Lakeman and Rob Howe responded to a report of an owl stuck in a foothold trap behind a house in the town of Deerfield. They saw the owl's right talon was held in the trap preventing it from flying. Officers netted the owl with a fishing net and carefully released the trap. The owl took a few hops, looked back at the ECOs for a moment, and flew away, appearing healthy and unharmed. There were no tags on the trap to identify who had set it. They say the trap was extremely old and had most likely been left in the woods for years. The ECOs removed the illegal trap.

And the owl flew home to his family and lived happily ever after...We hope anyway.