Silver Lining? Budget Concerns May Spare 450k Owls

In a rare glimmer of hope for wildlife amid the shifting political landscape, a group of 19 bipartisan lawmakers has come together to urge Interior Secretary Doug Burgum to halt the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s disturbing plan to kill over 450,000 barred owls across the Pacific Northwest.

In a joint letter to Secretary Burgum, the lawmakers argued that the proposed program would cost taxpayers more than a billion dollars over the next 30 years. They called for the cancellation of the plan, urging the Secretary "in the spirit of fiscal responsibility and ethical conservation" to stop the mass killing of a native North American owl species.

The plan to slaughter barred owls in an attempt to save the Northern Spotted Owl was always a deeply flawed and short-sighted strategy. This misguided approach failed to address the real, ongoing threat to the Spotted Owl: the destruction and fragmentation of the old-growth forests they call home due to human encroachment, logging, and climate change.

Furthermore, allowing land managers and landowners to shoot barred owls as part of this plan is not only cruel but also dangerous for the owls this plan seeks to protect. Northern Spotted Owls are extremely difficult to distinguish from barred owls and could therefore accidentally fall victim to these lethal removal methods.

While supporters of the plan have estimated the cost at closer to $360 million over thirty years, opponents have argued that the program could not keep pace with barred owl breeding, meaning the killing, and the costs, would need to continue indefinitely.

A representative from the Department of the Interior has confirmed that while the agency does not comment on congressional communications, they will carefully review the letter.

With major cuts to government spending a key priority of the current administration, focusing on the long-term costs of this flawed plan could be the key to stopping this cruel mass slaughter before it starts.

You can speak out against this terrible plan by signing our petition opposing the killing of half a million owls and by sharing the petition with your friends and family.