Police officer and aspiring falconer swoops in to aid injured owl

OttawaWhen a concerned citizen called Ottawa police about a hobbled owl in the Stittsville area, they couldn’t have known that one of the responding officers was uniquely skilled to help.Prognosis positive for barred owl found hurt in Ottawa’s Stittsville area CBC News · Posted: Nov 28, 2025 2:17 PM EST | Last Updated: 11 minutes agoListen to this articleEstimated 1 minuteThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Const. Kevin Young of the Ottawa police holds an injured owl in the Stittsville area on Nov. 28, 2025. (Ottawa Police Services/Facebook)When a concerned citizen called Ottawa police about a hobbled owl in the Stittsville area, they couldn’t have known that one of the responding officers was uniquely skilled to help.The injured bird was found Friday morning near Robert Grant Avenue and Fernbank Road.Const. Kevin Young was on duty nearby, and also happens to be working toward an apprenticeship in falconry.”I find birds of prey fascinating and I’ve always loved them,” he’s quoted as saying in an account of the rescue on the Ottawa police Facebook page.Young helped transport the barred owl to a local bird sanctuary, where police said it was determined the bird had likely been hit by a vehicle but was given a positive prognosis.Barred owls are relatively common in the region. The Cornell Lab of Ornithology describes the bird as an “attractive owl, with soulful brown eyes and brown-and-white-striped plumage [that] can also pass completely unnoticed as it flies noiselessly through the dense canopy or snoozes on a tree limb.”