Big hoot over owl welfare
PAULSHOF - An owl rescue organisation has accused urban ecology organisation, EcoSolutions, and FreeMe Wildlife Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre of putting owls in harm's way.
Owl Rescue Centre, a Centurion-based owl welfare organisation, originally posted a photo on its Facebook page illustrating an owlet in one of EcoSolution’s Owl Box Project owl boxes. In the photo the owlet was surrounded by dead chickens, some of which appeared to have maggots on them.
FreeMe based in Paulshof, often hands over rehabilitated owls to EcoSolutions for re-introduction into the wild. Many of the owls and owlets become part of EcoSolutions’ Owl Box Project, and one aspect of the project is to introduce owls into townships such as Alexandra in an effort to reduce the rat infestation.
Brendan Murray of Owl Rescue Centre condemned the introduction of owls into townships. He said owls would not naturally occur in these areas and are being killed off by residents who were superstitious of the bird.
“Owls like to nest in big spaces like warehouses,” Murray said. “Do you think an owl wants to live in a single-roomed shack?” Referring to the photo posted on Facebook, Murray said FreeMe would never allow an owl to live in those conditions on its own premises.
“The owl could get salmonella poisoning from the rotting chickens,” he said.
Jonathan Haw of EcoSolutions responded to Murray’s statements by saying, “I have visited so many wild owl nests and know that sometimes they can be a foot deep in dead and rotting rats without any ill effect on the owlets. One of the reasons owls are so effective at dealing with rodent explosions is that the parents will often provide far more than their owlets can consume.”
Haw added that the exact opposite would have been worse. “An empty box without food and two dead owls would have been worse. A group of kids standing over two dead owlets like trophy hunters would have been worse. A picture of a box where the feeders have clearly overprovided, much like parent owls do in the wild, is just a dirty box that needs cleaning.”
Nicci Wright of FreeMe also responded to Murray’s allegations by re-instating FreeMe’s confidence in Haw as a raptor expert and the Owl Box Project. Wright said they were satisfied with the ethical and professional methodology that EcoSolutions employed and the pre- and post- monitoring done on owl releases.
Sandton SPCA, which is responsible for animal welfare in Alexandra, said they were not aware of any owls involved in the Owl Box Project that have been harmed by people, and quite contrarily, concerned members of the Alexandra community have brought injured owls to the association.
