Living on a farm in Danville, Casey and Lauren Hinkel and their two children had plenty of experiences with owls.

“We see them all of the time out on our property,” Lauren said. “They are very noisy in the evening. In certain seasons, like now and late summer, they actually make crazy sounds and almost sound like monkeys. It’s pretty insane. They’re the kind of owls that turkeys like to gobble at whenever they hear them.”

But when the Hinkels found an owl stuck on a barbed wire near their property on March 16, they were determined to keep that owl alive.

“We immediately took him home,” Lauren said. “My husband (Casey) began making phone calls to find out what we needed to do with him. I put him in the house to warm him up. He was fast asleep in that coat. Then, we found out that there’s a raptor rehab that was part of the Mizzou Vet School. They had on-call hours. We were able to take him straight up there.”

Lauren said the owl made a full recovery and was later released.

“They got the owl back to our property on Sunday (April 2) and he was released,” she said. “He flew off to a tree, hung out for a little bit and flew down the treeline. We were really excited to see him go.”

Lauren said she was grateful that she and her family teamed up to save the barred owl, which is known for its strong territorial behavior.

“It was definitely a blessing,” Lauren said.

Lauren, Casey and son Ian were taking a walk in the woods when they saw the owl stuck on the barbed wire fence. Casey immediately got some tools, while Lauren stayed with the owl. Ian videotaped the rescue.

“He (the owl) wasn’t moving,” Lauren said. “When we first saw him, we first thought he wasn’t alive, but he turned his head and looked at us. Casey came back with some wire cutters, gloves and an old hunting coat to wrap the owl in. I supported the owl, while he cut the barbed wire and freed the owl from being hung on the fence. We had a tricky task of getting the barbed wire out of his feathers.”

The Hinkel family, which also included son Isaac, took the owl to Raptor Rehab. The owl was treated for a subluxation in his left wing. He was in rehabilitation for several days and was put in a flying cage.

“While he was in the rehab in the flying cage, we were able to go up and take a tour of it,” Lauren said. “We were told during this tour that not very many owls actually make a recovery after a barbed wire incident. Only one or two percent survive it and most of them die. So they were really excited with this owl and his recovery. That was so cool.”

Lauren credits neighbor Karen Knowles for helping out in the rescue.

“The night we rescued him, it was Karen Knowles who helped direct us to calling this raptor rehab because we weren’t sure what to do with him,” Lauren said. “They helped us out a lot that night.”