As three grass owls were being saved by the Department of Environment and Natural Resources in Calasiao town, village officials of Pantal, Manaoag found an 8-month old fetus floating in a river in the pilgrimage town.

The female fetus was found in the early morning of Friday by residents of Pantal village who reported it to the village officials and the police.

Sr. Inspector Abelardo Llamido said the fetus was brought to the church for a priest to bless it and was buried in the municipal cemetery.

“It looked like it was newly-born, its body was still soft,” Llamido said.

In Buenlag village of Calasiao, the parents of those who found two grass owls atop a tree decided to turn-over the animals to the DENR.

Arsenia Maynigo, 43, called up Violy Valdez, a radio reporter, to report about the owls found by his nephew Jess Peralta,12 and his friends Jeffrey Cerezo,16 and Efren Cuares, 13.

Valdez in turn, called me up about  the foundlings.

Maynigo said the three kids were playing in a rice field at the back of their houses when they spotted the owls and caught them.

A neighbor already built a cage for the owls and he wanted to make them as pets, she said.

But she talked to the children’s parents, telling them that such animals should be turned over to authorities.

The DENR in Dagupan City immediately sent Amy Bautista to the village to retrieve the owls. It was she who identified them as “grass owls” and said they will be released at the Manleluag forestry reservation in Mangatarem  town.

“They are still babies because their beaks are small and their feathers not fully grown,” she said.

Grass owls are best left undisturbed in the place where they are seen, she said, adding that they are not yet endangered.