India's Environment Minister has
blamed the popularity of the Harry Potter books for the decline of wild owl populations, suggesting that owls are being poached and sold as pets to Potter fans:
The report's author, Abrar Ahmed, wrote that he decided to investigate the owl trade after being asked by a friend to procure a live white-coloured owl for her son's Harry Potter-themed 10th birthday party.
"This was probably one of the strangest demands made to me as an ornithologist," he wrote.
The report is titled, in the sort of splendidly Wodehousean English often used in India,
The Imperilled Custodians of the Night.
This feels a bit like one of the press freedom ads in the story above.