Who says people don't give a hoot about owls?

Rescuers saved a screech owl that got caught in a fence in the Barton Hills neighborhood of Ann Arbor Township Tuesday evening, according to Aaron Soyring of the Humane Society of Huron Valley.

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Lesa Huget said her husband was walking their Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, Libby, near their home in the 500 block of Barton Shores Drive around 5:50 p.m. when Libbry starting barking at the the bird, which was entangled upside down in a mesh fence.

"It was very alert," Huget said about the owl.

The temporary mesh fence wrapped around stakes is used to keep deer, which are plentiful in the area, out of a garden.

“We see deer, we see fox, we see hawks, (but) an owl we’ve never seen," she said. "This was a unique sighting for us."

It's believed the owl tried perching on the fence, which couldn't hold its weight and the owl's talons got caught in the mesh, Soyring said. Either that, or the owl flew into the mesh fence and got tangled by flailing around.

“We didn’t dare try to do anything on our own,” Huget said, so they called the humane society.

Soyring said the owl was in trouble when he arrived.

"It started cutting off the circulation and it couldn't get out," Soyring said.

Soyring wrapped the owl in a towel, then cut it free with scissors from a Swiss army knife.

"(Soyring) helped it spread its wings … and then it took off and flew away like nothing had happened,” Huget said. “I was very relieved to see it fly away unharmed. I was afraid that it was injured. Wherever the owl is, I’m glad he flew off. He sure was beautiful."

It was the second rescue of the day for Soyring, who was at the scene where a golden retriever was lifted to safety from an icy Huron River near East Delhi Road Bridge a few hours earlier.

John Counts covers crime and breaking news for The Ann Arbor News. He can be reached at johncounts@mlive.com or you can follow him on Twitter. Find all Washtenaw County crime stories here.