Halloween spider web ensnares screech owl

Holiday decorations might be all fun and games for us humans, but for the woodland critters and feathered friends we share this world with, they can be nothing more than a pending death sentence.

Just ask the quarter-pound western screech owl that was found last Tuesday morning by a San Rafael resident, alive, and entangled within a fake spider web that some Halloween-crazed human decided to hang from a front yard tree.

The dehydrated hooter was stuck there for several hours. Eventually, it was transported to WildCare in San Rafael by a humane society officer, where it was pumped with fluids intravenously. Experts at WildCare urge holiday decorators to keep wildlife in mind when getting festive outdoors.

“It’s a lot more common than people realize,” said Melanie Piazza, director of animal care for WildCare. “We’ve had squirrels come in with Fourth of July banners wrapped around their tails and deer that have been stuck in Christmas lights.”