On July 24, members of Congress leveraged the Congressional Review Act (CRA) to stop the killing of 500,000 barred owls in California, Washington and Oregon to save spotted owls. The resolution’s primary sponsors include U.S. Reps. Troy Nehls, R-Texas; Josh Harder, D-California; Scott Perry, R-Pennsylvania; and Adam Gray, D-California.

 While we generally don’t think Congress should be using the CRA to influence wildlife management, we are asking our supporters to urge their U.S. Senators and Representatives to put an end to this plan for several reasons and thus to vote yes on to the resolution. You can find your members of Congress here: https://www.congress.gov/members/find-your-member

 Friends of Animals filed a lawsuit in November 2024 against U.S. Fish and Wildlife’s insane management plan to save spotted owls. FWS is scapegoating barred owls for its decades-long failure to better protect northern spotted owl habitat. Instead of admitting its mismanagement and coddling of the logging industry—the real reason northern spotted owls are threatened—and trying to restore habitat, the agency approved a senseless plan that allows the mass slaughter of barred owls over the next 30 years.

“We are not just fighting for the lives of hundreds of thousands of owls, we’re fighting for a future of wildlife management that values the lives of animals, including the ones who naturally adapt to a changing environment,” said Stephen Hernick, managing attorney for FoA’s Wildlife Law Program.  “In a world with rapidly changing climate, we will see far more animals adjusting their habitat. FWS should focus on protecting all animals, not killing those who adapt.”

 FoA’s lawsuit argues that underlying FWS’s decision is the false premise that barred owls are an invasive species. Barred owls were not introduced to the Pacific Northwest by humans.  They are believed to have migrated from eastern United States in response to changing climatic and geographic conditions in the last hundred years.

 It is especially jarring that FWS also proposes to carry out this action in federally designated wilderness areas. The Wilderness Act mandates that FWS manage these areas in a limited way so that they are unaffected by humans.

 Adding insult to injury, FoA’s lawsuit points out that FWS’s initial barred owl mass slaughter “experiment” —about 2,500 barred owls were killed—had little measurable effect on northern spotted owl populations. Not to mention, since shooting of barred owls will mostly occur in the dark, there is a great risk that spotted owls will accidentally be shot since these species look and sound a lot alike.

 The lawsuit makes it clear the mass slaughter of barred owls will not change the outlook for spotted owls: They will still not be protected as endangered; their habitats will continue to be negatively affected by the logging industry, human development and climate change.