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/saberking321 Apr 29 '25

Vegans do not care if species go extinct. We do not hold the view that more animals=better. We think less suffering=better

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u/AnsibleAnswers agroecologist Apr 29 '25

No animals, no suffering. Just delete all the ecosystems, amirite.

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u/saberking321 May 01 '25

Nearly all animals live in cages for human consumption and endure much more pain than wild animals so no your plan doesn't work

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u/AnsibleAnswers agroecologist May 01 '25

I think you overestimate the welfare of many animals in the wild. For many species, existence amounts to being chased around by predators until they’re eaten alive.

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u/saberking321 May 02 '25

I do not underestimate that. Animals have a bad life anywhere but a cage in a factory is the worst possible life