To save the northern spotted owl, the U.S. government is planning to... kill nearly 500,000
other owls?
If you're reading this headline and thinking to yourself, 'that doesn't make much sense to me,' you're right. It makes no sense at all.
Sign now to tell the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service: invest in humane owl population control methods and stop the largest bird cull in history!Barred owls are beautiful, intelligent, and fascinating creatures. Yet the way the U.S. government is planning to protect the northern spotted owl - a neighboring competitor in the region - from extinction is by slaughtering innocent barred owls.
This ridiculous and cruel plan won't address the root cause of existential threats to the northern spotted owl whatsoever. Research tells us that the true threats to owl populations are primarily from years and years of industrial logging. This human activity has decimated birds' habitat and intensely constrained the resources they need to survive. Instead of taking accountability for humans' role in this extinction risk, the government is scapegoating another wildlife species.
As if this culling program wasn't already bad enough, it's also wildly expensive. Killing nearly a half a million barred owls
will cost over $1 billion dollars of taxpayer money, which comes out to roughly $3,000 per owl killed. To execute this costly plan, owls would need to be shot dead in many protected areas, including within national parks.
This plan also sets a dangerous precedent. If it becomes legal to kill one native species in order to help another, then we could see the government take many other lethal wildlife control measures in the future.
Slaughtering some animals to allegedly help others is not conservation. If allowed to move forward, this would mark the largest bird cull in U.S. history.
Make no mistake: authorities should take seriously the actual risks posed to the northern spotted owl and protect it from extinction. There are much more effective, humane, and inexpensive ways to actually do that.
It's time for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to abandon this horrendous plan. Sign the petition now if you agree!