WEST HAVEN – October 26, 2015 (Gephardt Daily) – A Great Horned Owl that was hit by a semi-truck on I-15 was put down by officials Sunday night.
The driver of the semi remembered hitting the bird sometime during the night Saturday. It wasn’t until he stopped for breakfast at Flying J on 21st Street Sunday around 11 a.m. that he realized the owl was wedged in the grille of his truck. Remarkably, the bird was still alive.
Officials from the Division of Natural Resources came out and were able to safely remove it. “The owl had suffered extensive injuries including two broken wings, internal bleeding and head trauma,” said Dalyn Marthaler, spokesperson for the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center of Northern Utah. “Sunday night the owl started to go into respiratory distress and we decided at that time, the owl had suffered enough.”
Marthaler said they knew it was unlikely the owl would fully recover but still held onto the hope it might pull through. “We wanted him to survive but just couldn’t continue to put him through more suffering,” she said.
