Owl Saved By 2 South Huntington School District Employees: Watch

SOUTH HUNTINGTON, NY — Two South Huntington groundskeepers came to the rescue of an owl on the grounds of Walt Whitman High School, according to a news release.

A jogger told the groundskeepers that a bird was caught in the baseball net at the school. The groundskeepers, Blaise Addeo and Brian Faller, rushed over to the net.

"It was no ordinary bird you would expect to find in the middle of the day - the entangled bird was an owl," the school district stated.

The owl had gotten his claws tangled in the net. Addeo covered part of the owl with a blanket while Faller untangled the claws. They slowly and carefully freed each leg one at a time. As they untangled the claws, they spoke to the owl in hopes of keeping him calm and building trust.

"They didn’t have to go and approach that bird … the video shows how compassionate my guys are and how much they care," stated Kevin O’Shaughnessy, head of grounds for South Huntington.

The owl was exhausted and did not even try to fight or attack them, Faller said. Since owls are nocturnal creatures, they figured the owl was there since the night before, which meant the owl spent all night and most of the next day caught in the net. As Addeo and Faller started to help and talk to the owl, it lay still as if it recognized and accepted that they were there to help.

"To be honest, I didn’t even think twice about it," Faller said about his decision to help. "It was kind of like a reaction. Just like ‘let’s get this guy out of here.’"

According to O’Shaughnessy, it’s becoming more and more common for people to just walk away from having soccer goals and lacrosse goals and other kinds of netting things up, and something like an animal getting tangled up in the netting is exactly what could happen.

"We are an educational institution, and that’s what my hope was to pass this on to educate people to think about what you’re doing and take that little extra effort," O’Shaughnessy said.

O’Shaughnessy said he hopes the baseball team will roll and tie the netting up in the future to prevent another animal from getting trapped in it.

"My hope is that people will see this video and realize that there is all kinds of wildlife out there and what we do in our lives can affect nature," he said.

O’Shaughnessy said the school district is grateful to its hardworking grounds crew.

"We are especially thankful to Addeo and Faller for their heroic efforts to free the owl and continuing to help ensure that we keep our district grounds clean and safe," he said.