Bird I found in net damaged cable (7)
I believe the answer is:
towline
'cable' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'bird i found in net damaged' is the wordplay.
'bird' becomes 'owl' (owl is a kind of bird).
'found in' indicates putting letters inside.
'damaged' indicates an anagram.
'owl'+'i'='owli'
'net' with letters rearranged gives 'tne'.
'owli' going within 'tne' is 'TOWLINE'.
(Other definitions for towline that I've seen before include "that aids recovery after breakdown" , "Rope for pulling a vehicle" , "This is used by tug" , "cable" .)