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Apparently Britain is positively overflowing with owls that have been turfed out of their homes. Potter fans that fell in love with the wizard’s mail-delivering pet owl, Hedwig, all went out and bought one. Now that Potter’s all done and dusted the poor owls are getting dumped too.
Owl sanctuaries are apparently full to bursting, and there are fears that legions of the things have been illegally let loose into the British wilderness to either starve or take over from our natural, smaller owls. The problem is owls live for around 20 years and need pretty large places to flap about — something most Potter fans just don’t have.
This isn’t the first time a film series has caused a load of homeless pets in Blighty though — the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles film from the 1990s caused a mass uptake of terrapins. Once the kids got bored with their potentially rather dull pet, the poor things got dumped into our rivers and lakes.
It seems the Potter books needed something akin to the classic canine campaign printed on them — an owl is for life, not just for cosplaying Potter re-enactments. [The Mirror]
Image credit: Owl from Shutterstock
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Shame they didn’t over glorify Ron’s rat. A mass dumping of small rats might have evened out the problem.
Surely this isn’t so much the fault of Harry Potter but rather the fault if rubbish parents and stupid children.
Why are there laws in this country that restrict the purchase of drugs, alcohol and cigarettes – things that hurt the person buying them – and then apparently no restrictions on being able to buy animals who are inevitably neglected. It feels like the priorities are all wrong.
After everyone watched Die Another Day did everyone run out and buy invisible cars? Coz I swear they keep knocking me over when I’m drunk
You should sue. I think you’d have a really good case. I’m thinking of suing Spielberg due to his negligence in releasing ‘Jurassic Park’. I hold him solely responsible for that spate of parents buying their little precious a pet Tyrannosaurus Rex, which, when they found out how impossible they are to house train, would then let them roam free about the towns and cities. I personally attribute the disappearance of my ex-wife to one of these rogue Tyrannosaurus Rex’s. Well either one of those or else she ran off with my best friend, and I know which one is more likely.