Killing barred owls to save spotted owls is a moral atrocity

William S Lynn

The Ecological Citizen Vol 8 No 2 2025: 128–34 [epub-136]

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First published: 19 June 2025 | PERMANENT URL | DOWNLOAD CITATION IN RIS FORMAT

Abstract

To care about both barred and northern spotted owls is to be faced with a Sophie's choice – making a harrowing decision about which owls should survive in the wild or at all. The barred owl removal experiment has failed its original purpose to demonstrate that spotted owls can establish refugia, even if it did delay or pause their decline in some areas. Climate change, habitat degradation, agroforestry, land conversion and a hostile policy environment are together dooming spotted owls in the wild. Killing barred owls to delay this eventuality is a moral atrocity, an effort to 'do something' even if it is scientifically ineffective and ethically wrong.

Keywords

Animal ethics, Conservation, Ecological ethics

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