Plan to cull barred owls sparks controversy and ethical debate

The FWS has proposed its plan to cull about 450,000 barred owls. This plan involves the annual culling of 0.5 percent of the barred owl population over the next 30 years.

The justification is the rapid reproduction of larger barred owls. They are appearing across almost the entire United States. Consequently, another species of owl—the spotted owl—is at risk.

Barred owl management is not about one owl versus another. Without actively managing barred owls, northern spotted owls will likely go extinct in all or the majority of their range, despite decades of collaborative conservation efforts- said Kessina Lee, FWS inspector of Oregon.

Plans announced by the FWS have met overwhelming criticism from animal welfare organizations in the U.S. In addition to substantial ethical concerns, the main argument against the plan is its cost, estimated at CAD 320 million. Organizations emphasize that this is one of history's most expensive endangered species management projects.

Every sensible person wants to save spotted owls from extinction, but strategies that kill a half-million look-alike forest owls must be taken off the table in violating our norms about proper treatment of any native owl species in North America - said Wayne Pacelle, president of Animal Wellness Action and the Centre for a Humane Economy.

If the plan is approved, trained specialists and landowners whose properties barred owls and spotted owls coexist will be able to shoot the former freely. The FWS stipulates, however, that hunting barred owls will not be allowed.

The Fish and Wildlife Service is turning from protector to persecutor of American wildlife. Its plan is wildly expensive without protecting a single acre of forest habitat, and it is doomed to fail because there’s no way for the agency to prevent surviving owls from recolonizing nest sites - summed up Pacelle.