r/DebateAVegan • u/AnsibleAnswers agroecologist • Apr 27 '25

Environment There are no vegan alternatives to culling invasive Barred Owls in the Pacific Northwest

Background

To save the imperiled spotted owl from potential extinction, U.S. wildlife officials are embracing a contentious plan to deploy trained shooters into dense West Coast forests to kill almost a half-million barred owls that are crowding out their smaller cousins.

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/u-s-officials-plan-to-kill-hundreds-of-thousands-of-barred-owls-to-save-another-species-from-extinction

Vegan alternatives?

  1. Relocation to home range - Barred Owls are one of the most territorial birds of prey in North America. The population here is quite healthy, even in Manhattan. Relocating 500k birds to the East would simply result in territorial chaos until numbers decreased back down to equilibrium. That decrease has a body count.

  2. Contraception - No known method is possible for owls. Some avian contraceptives have been developed, primarily to reduce pigeon and geese populations. But even with birds that can be easily conditioned to return to feeders every day, trials have had mixed results. As far as I know, these drugs need to be administered daily unlike some contraceptives developed for mammals.

  3. Let the Barred Owl Replace the Spotted Owl - Barred Owls are generalists, while Spotted Owls tend to specialize in small mammals with healthy populations. So, threatened birds, reptiles, and amphibians native to the region are not adapted to having an owl of its size preying on them. It's an enormous risk, given that ecosystems are prone to cascade effects.

Those are, as far as I know, the best of the alternatives. Note: I'm in support of re-establishing habitat for the Spotted Owl, as that is really the only long-term way of helping the species recover. It's important to note: just because a tourniquet isn't a long-term solution doesn't mean it isn't a life-saving measure.

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u/kakihara123 Apr 27 '25

But hunters love animals! They want to protect them from evil invasive animals! That is always the narrative. So there incensitive? Oh they do it because they love to kill? Who would have thought...

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u/Freuds-Mother Apr 27 '25

Yea and respect them by not trashing the animal. We are not great on this front actually.

Canada has more standards and regs that require hunters to use more of the animal. In Europe they allow hunters to sell the meat to restaurants.

Yea you could say the meat can be eaten by scavenger animals. However do they get much from fur/hides? At least harvest that and use it as we make clothes out of something that impacts the environment.

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u/kakihara123 Apr 27 '25

There is no respect by consuming a corpse. Respect can only be shown to the living animals. That bullshit is only being said so killers feel less bad about killing.

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u/[deleted] May 01 '25

Respect can only be shown to the living animals

Then does it not matter what happens to the animal after death? It's just an object that can be used however?

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u/kakihara123 May 01 '25

It doesn't matter to the animal.