Advocacy groups have expressed dismay after the Senate’s decision last month not to halt the planned killing of hundreds of thousands of barred owls, a measure intended to protect the spotted owl.
Newsweek has contacted the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) for comment via online contact form.
Why It Matters
USFWS says spotted owls, which are native to western North America, are threatened by barred owls, in addition to habitat loss from timber harvests and wildfires. Barred owls, native to eastern North America, began expanding west around 1900 as human activity altered forests and the Great Plains. Larger and more aggressive, barred owls have displaced spotted owls from their historical territory, according to the agency.
The agency has also said that actions to address the threat barred owls pose to spotted owls are “necessary to support the survival of the threatened northern spotted owl and avoid substantial impacts to the California spotted owl populations from barred owl competition.”
Newsweek previously reported that the plan—finalized during the Biden administration—would involve trained shooters targeting the invasive species over a 30-year period across California, Oregon and Washington. A move to halt the scheme failed, with 25 votes to 72 votes.
What To Know
“We are disappointed that the government is proceeding with the reckless plan to kill hundreds of thousands of owls,” Jennifer Best, the director of Friends of Animals’ Wildlife Law Program, told Newsweek.
“This is both shortsighted and cruel. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service plans to use taxpayer money to continually kill federally protected owls for decades with no end in sight. Meanwhile the government continues to fall short when it comes to ethical and meaningful protection for northern spotted owls, such as listing the species as endangered and protecting sufficient habitat,” she added.
Wayne Pacelle, the president of Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, told Newsweek: “It is unconscionable that this plan turns the Endangered Species Act from a shield into a sword, using it to kill half a million barred owls and orphan countless owlets.
“It’s now going to be weaponized to enable killing of threatened Northern spotted owls, too. This plan amounts to a war on both species of owls and the weapons are guns, chain saws, and bulldozers.
“The government can pay contract shooters all day long to shoot barred owls, but it will make little difference,” Pacelle added. “Keeping spotted owls and barred owls away from each other is spitting in the ocean and trying to change the tides. Shooting projects for barred owls will have only the most fleeting effect, with surrounding barred owls replacing them and filling the void in short order.”
What People Are Saying
Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito, the chair of the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, voted against halting the plan and said, per Politico: “The Trump administration agrees with the Biden administration on this—how rare is that on this strategy? We’ve heard a lot from timber and some other folks.”
People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) told Newsweek: “Killing one animal to save another isn’t conservation, it’s cruelty.”
What Happens Next
Best suggested that instead of culling barred owls, the focus should instead be on preserving and restoring habitats for northern spotted owls.