US Government to Shoot 450,000 Owls to Save Another Species as Animal Rights Groups Say It Has Already Begun

A federal plan to shoot nearly half a million owls across three US states is moving forward, and animal rights lawyers say the killing has already started.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service finalised its Barred Owl Management Strategy in August 2024, authorising the lethal removal of up to 450,000 barred owls across Washington, Oregon and California over 30 years. The plan is designed to protect the northern spotted owl, a threatened species whose population has fallen by up to 75 percent over the past two decades as a result of relentless competition from the barred owl.

A federal court hearing in Portland on 3 June 2026 brought the matter to a head, and lawyers for the plaintiffs say the government did not wait for a ruling before acting.

A Threatened Native Species Pushed Toward Extinction

The northern spotted owl has been listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act since 1990, and its decline has only accelerated. According to a 2021 peer-reviewed meta-analysis published in Biological Conservation, northern spotted owl populations declined at a rate of 6 to 9 percent annually across six study areas and 2 to 5 percent annually across five others, with barred owl presence identified as the primary driver. On seven of the 11 study areas analysed, fewer than 35 percent of the original populations remained since 1995.

In Washington state alone, the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife recorded population declines of up to 80 to 90 percent in some federal landscapes where barred owls were most established.

The FWS has since concluded that upgrading the spotted owl's status from 'threatened' to 'endangered' was 'warranted but precluded,' meaning the evidence justified the change but agency resources prevented it from being made official. Only around 15,000 northern spotted owls are believed to remain in the United States, according to the American Bird Conservancy.

Barred owls are native to eastern North America but spread westward during the 20th century, most likely aided by the clearing of the Great Plains by European settlers, which created new forest corridors. They are larger, more aggressive and more reproductively prolific than spotted owls. They displace spotted owls from nesting territories, compete for the same prey and in documented cases have attacked and killed spotted owls directly.

Bridget Moran, a deputy state supervisor for the FWS in Oregon, said of the spotted owl: 'We're at a crossroads. We have the science to indicate what we can do to conserve spotted owls, and it's telling us that we must manage barred owls in addition to habitat to save them.'

How the Cull Works and the Science Behind It

The management strategy, detailed in the FWS's Record of Decision published in July 2024, authorises specially trained shooters to broadcast recorded territorial calls to attract barred owls at night, in forests away from human activity, and then shoot them with shotguns. The plan caps removals at 15,600 birds per year under full implementation, which the FWS notes would represent less than half of one percent of the current North American barred owl population annually. Public hunting is not permitted under the strategy.

The approach draws on a multi-year pilot experiment the FWS ran starting in 2013, in which approximately 2,500 barred owls were removed from test plots in California, Oregon and Washington. The FWS reported that spotted owl populations in areas with barred owl removal declined at an average rate of just 0.2 percent per year, compared to 12 percent per year in areas without any removal. Conservationists cited those results as evidence that the approach is scientifically justified. The Sierra Club, Earthjustice and the Center for Biological Diversity co-signed a letter stating the strategy 'is a necessary conservation action to stop the extinction of the northern spotted owl.'

On the ground, the Yakama Nation in Washington state became the first entity to formally implement the plan, publicly acknowledging that it launched barred owl removal on its reservation lands using shotguns.

According to reporting by the Yakima Herald, the tribe has secured funding for culling efforts through September 2027 and has applied for additional federal support. The Oregon Department of Forestry separately confirmed it will participate in removals, while the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife said it does not plan to do so.

The Lawsuit, the Hearing and the Claim That Killing Has Begun

Animal rights organisation Friends of Animals filed a lawsuit against the FWS, arguing the plan violates both the Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the National Environmental Policy Act. The organisation's lawsuit contends the FWS issued a special purpose permit for the removal because it could not meet the standards required under a general depredation permit, specifically the rule prohibiting the luring of animals into shooting range.

Friends of Animals also disputes the 'invasive species' classification, arguing barred owls expanded their range naturally over decades without direct human introduction, which means they do not meet the legal definition under the relevant executive order.

On 3 June 2026, US District Judge Adrienne Nelson in Portland heard cross-motions for summary judgement in the consolidated case. According to Courthouse News Service, Judge Nelson questioned lawyers for both sides, including challenging the plaintiffs on their standing to bring the suit. No ruling has been issued yet. Friends of Animals attorney Jennifer Best stated publicly following the hearing that the FWS 'has indicated that it is moving forward' with the killing. 'Because there is not currently a court order in place to stop the killing of barred owls, the government may continue to kill them while we wait for a decision,' Best said.

The FWS declined to comment on the active litigation. Court records, as noted by Best herself, do not confirm the specific location or scale of any removals carried out to date. The FWS emailed a statement to reporters citing 'active or pending litigation' as the reason it could not respond to questions.

The USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service also issued a Notice of Adoption for the barred owl strategy in Oregon, formally signing on as a cooperating agency in the plan's implementation.