Four bipartisan legislators from Oregon are speaking out against a plan by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to kill more than 450,000 barred owls over the next 30 years, according to a press release.
The federal plan reportedly aims to protect Northern and California spotted owls by killing their competition for nesting spots and food: the more common barred owl. But some Oregon legislators aren’t buying it. Representatives Ed Diehl, David Gomberg, Virgle Osborne, and Senator-elect Bruce Starr signed a letter opposing the plan. The idea of targeting and killing barred owls to save spotted owls in the Pacific Northwest is ill-conceived and comes with an exorbitant price tag, they point out.
“The FWS is taking a radical action to kill some owls protected by the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, with no reasonable chance of success and with an eye-popping price tag,” the letter states.
Targeting and killing barred owls would also not change one of the most pressing factors which endangers spotted owls: the loss of old growth forest. The Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action point to the need to protect the spotted owl’s habitat and say in a statement that the FWS has rejected sensible non-lethal alternatives, like rehabilitation and increased protections of the spotted owls’ wild home. They also allege that the dense woods and the planned night hunts “will result in mistaken identity kills of spotted owls and other owl species.” The two organizations have taken legal action against the plan.
Both barred owls and spotted owls are intelligent, feelings beings. Massacring these majestic animals would be inhumane — and impractical.
Slaughtering approximately half a million birds across three different states to try to save a different bird doesn’t seem likely to work, considering that the barred owl is a range-expanding bird who can repopulate the areas where others were killed off, according to the Oregon lawmakers. Along with the potential death toll, the plan comes with an estimated price tag of $1.35 billion.
“This simply isn’t a sound strategy – fiscally or ecologically,” said Representative David Gomberg. “As a staunch animal-welfare advocate and a believer in evidence-based policy, I cannot support a plan that calls on taxpayers to front $45 million a year to cull a protected species. We certainly need to better address the decline we’ve seen in our spotted owl population, but this is not the way to do it.”
“Rural, range-state lawmakers are rightly calling on the DOGE to nix a $1.35 billion plan that has no chance of success and that is targeting a range-expanding native owl species,” said Wayne Pacelle, president of the Center for a Humane Economy and Animal Wellness Action.
There are humane alternatives to targeting and killing these birds. The money proposed for the plan could instead be used to rehabilitate spotted owls and conserve/regrow their habitats, as some of the critics are advocating.
Please get in touch with your local lawmakers to urge them to oppose this cruel and reckless plan.
