Killer Owls, or simply nearsighted?

I was researching something completely unrelated (as usual) when I came across an article in Georgia's Bartow Press newspaper. When I get a chance, I'll do more research on this type of thing happening in Maine, but meanwhile, here's this to scratch your head over. It was filed under their "IT REALLY HAPPENED" newsbites section, on page 2 of their January 30, 1995 issue.

OWL BE DARNED.

Big owls get hungry when snow hides their usual prey, and that's bad news for meal-sized poodles in rural Maine.

Robin Kinney let her little white dog Swazy outside, heard loud squealing and turned to see an owl with a wingspan of about four feet attacking her pet.

Swazy escaped with talon marks on his head and neck, and Kinney rushed him into the house But when she went out an hour later, she was dive-bombed too.

The birds was probably a great horned owl that mistook the poodle for a rabbit, said Buzz Caverly, director of Maine's Baxter State Park.

In early January in Greenville, Maine, a great horned owl carried off a 20-pound poodle-Pekingese crossbreed and killed it. Game wardens killed that bird that day.