WASHINGTON STATE \u2014 Drivers on roads in three western Washington cities will now see billboards with a blunt message: \u201cHoot don\u2019t shoot. Stop the Slaughter. 450,000 owls to be shot. $1.35 billion taxpayer bill.<\/p>\n
The signs are part of a campaign opposing a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service strategy<\/a> to cull North American barred owls, a plan that would kill under 1% of its population of 450,000 owls over 30 years. <\/p>\n The nonprofit, Center for a Humane Economy, is behind the campaign. <\/p>\n President Wayne Pacelle said, \u201cWe are advocates of barred owls and spotted owls.\u201d<\/p>\n The signs are located on Lake City Way NE in Seattle, Woodinville-Snohomish Road near 144th Ave NE in Woodinville, and by I-5 in Fife near exit 137 54th Ave.<\/p>\n Pacelle argued the effort would not solve the problem long-term. <\/p>\n Those young owls will go into the areas cleansed of other barred owls and re-populate,” he said. “That will happen and be a never ending cycle of shooting, and then replenishing the population and we will be in the same place.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n U.S. Fish and Wildlife classifies the barred owl as an invasive species<\/a> in Washington, Oregon and California, saying the birds displace native northern spotted owls by disrupting nesting and outcompeting them for food. The agency said without managing barred owl populations, the northern spotted owls could become functionally extinct in Washington in the next decade.<\/p>\n Fish and Wildlife estimates there are roughly 11,000 northern spotted owls left. About 15% are in Washington, with the rest in Oregon and California.<\/p>\n