Hemofarm employees save two baby owls

Monday, start of a business week, we were ready for new work duties. A little after 10 a.m., my colleague Tatjana Stefanović Bireš, who was out for a break, called me to urgently come to the park within our company area. Totally in the dark of what to expect, I rushed out and saw Tanja standing next to a small grey puff! At first, it seemed unusual, but I soon realized that it was a small owl which had probably fallen form a nest. It looked at us scared, expecting help.

Tanja is someone who has always loved animals, and she rescues them whenever she can and wherever she finds them in trouble, so she has ‘infected’ me as well over the course of many years of spending time and working together in Hemofarm.

Without hesitating, Tanja immediately called a local ranger who saves birds. A group of colleagues from Infusions Department, some of whom are bird-lovers, joined us and we all together got the instructions how to put the owl on a branch, so that their parents could find it during the night.

Until the end of the working day, we visited little owl several times to see how it was doing and if it was well. We made a plan to visit it again the following day, hoping that its parents would have found it.

The following day, I came to work and saw the little owl laying on the ground, next to the tree where we had left it. My heart tightened in my chest when I realized that it was giving no signs of life. I was heartbroken. I looked for a box to put it in. At that moment, my phone rang - Tanja called, and I told her that our little owl had not survived.

She was stunned! She said that the little owl was there and alive!

I went out of my office to check what’s going on, and there was even bigger surprise waiting for me: two little owls, tiny, grey, puffy! We could not see the difference between them! Scared, squeezing together and turning their little heads towards us.

One of them was found by a girl working in the company restaurant, Jelena Simić, who took it and put it in a box, and the other one that I thought had not survived was taken care by Tanja, who put them both together. We quickly found a syringe from microbiology department, gave them water, so they livened up a bit, closely nestling together, and Tanja called Mile, the local ranger, again, and agreed with him to come to pick them up.

Milivoje Mile Vučanović is a man who cares for nature, and particularly loves birds and owls. He is a winner of the charter of the town of Vršac, and is also known as a living encyclopaedia of the Vršac Mountains flora and fauna. Mile is an associate with the Animal Marking Centre of the Museum of Natural History in Belgrade and a member of the management board of the Serbian Owl Rescue Centre.

When he finally took them over, saying ‘Now I will recover them and release them back into the wild’, we were happy beyond words! We were overwhelmed with great joy, a feeling that we have done a good deed and saved two little lives!

Caring for endangered and abandoned animals is something that people carry inside themselves. This is what makes us good people and motivates us to do our best even when there seems to be no hope.

Owls are otherwise very useful animals, and it is priceless that they have inhabited the treetops within our company area. For this, we can rightfully claim that we work in a clean, ecological environment!

We hope that this story and photos of little owls will get the public more familiar with the living world that is all around, that many of us increasingly fail to notice. While constantly chasing material possessions, time-constrained, we oftentimes overlook the small and big hearts beating around us. Each plant, animal, and cloud, either rainy or sun-bathed – they are our neighbours and co-inhabitants of the planet, that we, together, make alive and colourful.

Our colleague Tanja, Contract Manufacturing Associate, said on this matter: Don’t be afraid to help, don't expect anything in return, except for the feeling of satisfaction. Not a single being in need deserves to be left alone and helpless. Don't be afraid that they will hurt you, that you will get sick from them, but help them whenever you can or look for the people who will know what to do in the specific situations, the people who are familiar, who understand and feel that we are not alone in this world.

Author: Maja Cvijić, Senior Manager Contract Manufacturing, Hemofarm A.D.

Source: Hemofarm Foundation - HEMOFARM EMPLOYEES SAVE TWO BABY OWLS (fondacijahemofarm.org.rs)