Send this page to someone via email

SEAFORTH, N.S. – A four-month-old barred owl is lucky to be alive after being hit by a car and seriously injured on Hammonds Plains Road in Halifax last week.

Luckily for the baby owl, a passing truck driver saved the day.

“I saw a bird, or what I thought was a bird on the road flopping around, so I came to a stop and made everybody stop behind me,” said Bobby Cox.

“I just got out and saw it was still alive, but it didn’t look to be in good shape, so I picked it up and took it over to the shoulder of the road.”

Cox said when he put the owl down, it kept falling over head-first.

“I thought it was pretty well done for,” he said.

Story continues below advertisement

The owl was taken to Hope for Wildlife, a wildlife rehabilitation centre in Seaforth, N.S.

There, the owl was examined, and X-rays showed it had a number of injuries, including a broken leg.

“His break is so high on his leg [it] was basically rendered useless so he never would have healed, — he would only have had one foot,” said Katie Hauser, who works with Hope for Wildlife. “The pain he must have been in was immense.”

This year there has been an influx of injured barred owls at Hope for Wildlife. Three of the four owls being cared for at the rehabilitation centre have all been struck by vehicles.

“They say that if animals go to the side of the road to eat garbage or other roadkill, then an owl will swoop down to get them, and that’s when the owls are getting hit,” Hauser said.

She said a young female owl was rescued Friday in Halifax, and is still in the danger zone.

“Her X-rays we’re clean, so we’re just dealing with head trauma. She has no vision at the moment, but it can clear. She seems to be responding slightly to shadows.”

The young owl barred owl found on Hammonds Plains Road is expected to heal and be re-introduced to the wild next year, and he has a Good Samaritan in Cox to thank for being alive.

Story continues below advertisement

“It definitely would have gotten run over, it was getting closer by the minute…cars swerving,” he said, adding he only did “what most people would do.”

Hauser said it was an act of kindness very much appreciated.

“He saved him so much agony and suffering,” she said. “It’s fantastic that people will go out of their way for the wildlife.”