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Call for Moratorium on Hawaii's Wild Sheep Eradication
  1. Signatures
    627 out of 5,000
    Petitioning
    1. The President of the United States (+ 2 others)
      Petitioning
      close
      • The President of the United States
      • The Governor of HI
      • Hawaii Department of Land and Natural Resources (William Aila, Jr.)
  2. Created By
    Sydney Singer
    Pahoa, HI
About this Petition Petition Letter Petition Updates
Why This Is Important

Dead sheep rot on the slopes of Hawaii's Mauna Kea volcano, as one of the remaining families of wild sheep runs frantically from a helicopter armed with government paid eradicators shooting at them with assault weapons, all for the alleged purpose of trying to save the finch-like endangered palila bird from extinction.

Unfortunately, killing the sheep is not helping the birds, despite 30 years of sheep carnage that has reduced their population from 40,000 to less than 300 today.  They will soon all be wiped out if we don't stop this useless slaughter.

The sheep are being killed to prevent damage to the mamane tree, the seeds of which are food for the endangered bird.  But killing the sheep and growing more mamane has not helped the palila bird recover. In fact, weeds that had been controlled by the sheep are now tall and dry as the sheep are killed, creating a fire hazard that can destroy the palila habitat altogether.

We need to find some way to help the palila bird without needlessly exterminating every last wild sheep in Hawaii.  It's time to call a halt to the sheep eradication experiment and do some new research into what can really help the palila, as well as the nearly extinct Hawaiian wild sheep.

 

Why People Are Signing
Recent Signatures

Call for Moratorium on the senseless slaughter of Hawaii's wild sheep and Call for New Research into

Greetings, President Obama:

Your Home State of Hawaii needs your special attention. Our sheep need your shepherding, literally.

Federal orders mandate the slaughter of all wild sheep and goats on the slopes of Mauna Kea on the Big Island, for the purpose of protecting the endangered palila bird. The palila relies on the seeds of the mamane tree for its diet, and it has been assumed that the goats and sheep will destroy the mamane if allowed to roam on these slopes. To achieve the lofty goal of protecting the palila, an experiment was ordered by Federal court about 30 years ago in which tens of thousands of wild sheep and goats would be eradicated by fencing them in and shooting them by helicopter to see if this helps palila numbers recover. Unfortunately, the experiment has dismally failed.

All the goats have been killed. Less than 300 sheep remain. Meanwhile, palila numbers continue to fall, regardless of the sheep eradication. Now we face losing, not only the palila, but Hawaii's unique wild sheep.

Introduced for their food value in the 1700's, and protected by King Kamehameha, the sheep have now mixed with introduced endangered Mouflon sheep to produce a unique breed of sheep that can only be found in Hawaii on the slopes of Mauna Kea. All other wild sheep are gone from the other Hawaiian islands.

Sheep numbers have been poorly managed since their introduction, and populations soared into the tens of thousands, resulting in environmental harm from overgrazing. A major sheep eradication was done in the 1930's. A local friend told me, "My uncle was contracted in the late 1930's to shoot sheep off the Puu O'o cattle trail. They would shoot up to a hundred sheep a day from horse back.
One day my Uncle said that he witnessed a sheep that he had wounded had tears coming from its eyes. To him it was a vision from God and my uncle said he never killed another living thing since that day."

Properly managed, wild sheep are a natural resource that deserves protection. But today, 30 years after the court ordered eradication started, these unique sheep are in greater danger than the palila. And with evidence showing that this eradication is not achieving its intended goal of protecting the palila, there is no excuse for this to continue.

Please insist on a Moratorium on this sheep eradication while new research is conducted into finding methods that really do protect the palila. Mahalo.

[Your name]