Hi Peter,
I have one other suggestion, more for future reference as I’m sure you’ve made up your mind about the owl’s body by now, or it was taken over night.
Some of the owl’s feathers could be used for `imping’, which is a feather implantation technique performed by a specialist (not necessarily a vet) . Its used to replace damaged or broken feathers in birds who cannot otherwise fly. The feathers (especially primaries) can be used to replace damaged/broken feathers in the same species, or basically any bird with similar sized flight feathers from another species.
The imping process enables the bird to fly pretty much immediately. Its very cool- the feathers are basically glued onto another bird’s broken feathers, a procedure that takes about an hour and is relatively inexpensive. The main issue for `impers’, and those who wish to help a bird using this technique, is the availability of suitable feathers.
A wild bird can lose its feathers due to starvation, which can cause feathers to grow improperly and break off, through oil damage, being caged and spooked, or through accidents.
The kind of people who might be interested in the feathers would be `impers’ , who you can contact through a bird rehab organizations such as wires and wildcare, some bird vets, and bird sanctuaries such as currumbin. I reckon the owl feathers would be very hard to come by and well appreciated.
Cheers! ===============================
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