diff --git a/Objects/object.c b/Objects/object.c
index 1f4e3dd..7907a8e 100644
--- a/Objects/object.c
+++ b/Objects/object.c
@@ -311,6 +311,7 @@
                 else {
                     fwrite(PyBytes_AS_STRING(t), 1,
                            PyBytes_GET_SIZE(t), fp);
+                    Py_DECREF(t);
                 }
             }
             else {