A federal government plan to have hunters kill thousands of invasive owls to protect the rapidly declining northern spotted owl has ruffled the feathers of dozens of animal rights groups.
On Monday, a coalition of 75 animal rights and wildlife protection organizations sent a letter to U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland asking her to abandon what they called a “reckless plan.” » aimed at eliminating half a million barred owls in West Coast states over the next few years. three decades.
The letter, led by the group Animal Wellness Action and the Center for a Humane Economy, blasts the plan as unworkable and short-sighted, arguing it would result in culling the wrong owls and disrupting nesting behavior.
“Implementing a decades-long plan to release untold numbers of ‘hunters’ into sensitive forest ecosystems is a case of single-species myopia when it comes to wildlife control,” the statement said. letter, signed by Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action, and Scott Edwards. , general counsel of the Center for a Humane Economy.
Federal wildlife officials say the move is necessary to control the barred owl population — which they consider invasive — and give endangered northern spotted owls a fighting chance on their territory.
The proposal also aims to prevent the decline of the California spotted owl, which wildlife officials say also faces encroachment from the larger and more aggressive Sierra Nevada barred owl.
“Extirpation of the northern spotted owl from much of its historic range is likely in the near future without management of the barred owl,” the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service wrote in its proposal, citing demographic analysis recent.
The barred owl and the northern spotted owl are closely related and may even interbreed. But barred owls, native to the eastern United States, have been described as the “arch enemy” of their relatives.
The barred owl is more of a generalist, eating a wider range of foods and occupying a wider habitat.
The northern spotted owl is tougher and smaller. Its range extends from northwestern California to southwestern British Columbia, western Oregon and Washington state, according to the National Wildlife Foundation.
Smithsonian Magazine reports that spotted owl numbers have dropped about 75 percent over the past two decades, citing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, while barred owls appear to be thriving.
In 1990, northern spotted owls were listed as threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act in 1990. They were listed as threatened under the California Endangered Species Act in 2016 .
There is broad consensus that native owls are endangered, but the animal rights organizations behind this week’s letter of opposition say killing barred owls is not the solution . Instead, the groups are advocating for non-lethal ways to protect spotted owls, including saving their habitat.
“The plan to kill barred owls is a colossally reckless action…it should be shelved with all deliberate speed, and non-lethal management actions to protect spotted owls and their habitats should become the priority actions .”
However, not all wildlife groups agree.
Tom Wheeler, executive director of the Environmental Protection Information Center, called the letter criticizing the proposal to repel barred owls “factually misleading” and “dissociated from what is actually proposed.”
The letter reports that there will likely be “mistaken identity killings,” potentially of the spotted owls they seek to protect, but Wheeler said the proposal outlines a strategy to prevent that.
Opponents of the project also denounce the lead poisoning which could result from the shooting used by hunters. According to Wheeler, the plan calls for owl carcasses to be removed from the area where they were shot. California has banned hunting with lead ammunition.
The proposal – which remains in draft form – would not result in the immediate killing of barred owls.
Instead, it would remove the burden of allowing other people to remove the birds, Wheeler said.
Public land managers, such as the federal Fish and Wildlife Service and the Forest Service, as well as private landowners, “will be able to engage in this activity more quickly,” he said.
Wheeler said he recognized the issue was morally fraught, but he didn’t think there was an alternative. If nothing is done to control barred owls, he believes the northern spotted owl will become extinct in his lifetime.
His organization wants federal wildlife officials to take even more aggressive action to stop the advance of invasive owls.
“We have a functional choice, which is the extinction of one species, or we could let both species continue to exist in the landscape,” he said.
California Daily Newspapers
