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“Wow,” said a young boy in the corridor of the Winona 7 theater. “It’s a real owl.”
Karla Kinstler, a naturalist from the Houston Nature Center, introduced the boy to Alice, a 9-year-old great horned owl that has lived with Kinstler and her husband, Ken, for the past seven years.
“It’s as old as you are,” the boy’s father said.
The Kinstlers brought Alice along to see “Hoot,” a movie about three kids trying to save a group of endangered burrowing owls. She was also there to help raise awareness about wild animal habitat destruction.
“Wild animals are individuals with their own personalities,” said Karla. “They are not inanimate objects.”
The Kinstlers also asked those who stopped to look at Alice if they would like to sign a petition to help strengthen the protection given by the Endangered Species Act to owls threatened by habitat destruction and land development.
Alice was given to the Kinstlers by a wildlife rehabili-tator who found it with an irreparable broken wing after it fell out of its nest near Antigo, Wis., when it was only
3 weeks old.
Since it has been living with humans for almost its whole life, it now thinks it is one, and that Karla is its mate.
Karla explained that she is the only one Alice will allow to touch it, and only when it is in the mood.
Ken demonstrated this by reaching out to stroke Alice’s foot, to which the owl responded with a soft bite telling the intruder to keep away.
The Kinstlers are allowed to keep Alice on the condition that she be used for educational programs.
“She literally has to work for a living,” said Karla.
Karla and Alice put on an average of 30 to 40 programs at schools per year, which is well over the 12-program minimum, she said.
“It’s never been a problem for us,” Karla said.
After the last of the moviegoers had found their seats, Karla and Ken put Alice in its transport box and headed in to watch the show.
