Barn owls are highly susceptible to secondary rodenticide poisoning when they consume poisoned rodents, and reducing rodenticide use in agricultural and peri-urban settings is critical for barn owl welfare.
Barn owl rodenticide poisoning represents a compounding welfare tragedy: owls that exist to naturally control rodents are being killed by the chemicals applied to control those same rodents. Secondary poisoning through anticoagulant rodenticides causes a prolonged death through internal hemorrhage, representing significant individual welfare harm. At the population level, the widespread contamination of barn owl populations with second-generation rodenticides contributes to the population declines that reduce this species' capacity to provide the natural rodent control that reduces agricultural dependence on rodenticides. The circular logic of this system, using rodenticides that kill the natural rodent controllers, is both ecologically and welfare-problematic. Integrated pest management approaches that prioritize barn owl nesting and minimize rodenticide use break this cycle.