I have been interested in the sport of falconry my entire life, and have been increasingly interested in it in the past years. Falconry is defined as the sport of catching prey with a trained bird of prey. In this sport there are many different types of birds you can use, everything from a little kestrel falcon (Falco sparverius) , to a golden eagle (Aquila chrysateos).
However, the state of Wisconsin does not allow the use of golden eagles in the sport of falconry. Personally having worked with captive eagles for the past four years I cannot see why they are not allowed in the sport. I can see how, if you are not trained correctly on how to work with them, they can be dangerous, but in order to obtain an eagle permit you need to have seven years of experience with birds of prey. Someone with that much experience should not have any trouble dealing with an eagle.
I was confused as to why falconers in Wisconsin could not use golden eagles for falconry, so I decided to ask a couple of my falconry friends if they knew why this was so. I got the same story from all three people. Apparently there were a couple of guys that wanted to become professional falconers, and provide golf courses and airports with geese control. So they went and got themselves a couple of Gyrfalcons (Falco rusticolus), one of the largest falcons in the world that can fly well over 200 miles per hour. Once they had their Gyrfalcons they began flying them in the golf courses and airports to scare away the geese. This worked for a while, until the geese learned that the falcons would not do anything to them, just fly over their heads. Then the two falconers decided to go and get themselves a couple of golden eagles, because nothing stays around when there is a golden eagle in the air, and a eagle is more than capable of taking a goose.
It was going really good for the two falconers, their eagles were chasing and killing geese left and right, and the air ports and golf courses were very pleased that the geese were gone. One day, however, one of the eagles decided to kill something that it was not supposed to, someone’s dog. Because the eagles were so used to people they have no problem flying right next to someone to kill a prey item, in this case a small dog. Now the eagle was only doing what came naturally, it saw something that was a potential prey item and it caught it.
It was really no one’s fault that one of the eagles killed a dog, but as so happens with today’s society, this ended in a law suit that put golden eagles on the “no fly” list for falconers in Wisconsin. Personally I do not believe that golden eagles should not be on the “no fly” list just because of one accident that happened a long time ago. There are some changes that could be made that, in my mind, would make it possible for golden eagles to once again be used in the sport of falconry in the state of Wisconsin. For example the government could make it mandatory that if you are going to be flying a golden eagle, you first need to have a certain number of hours of experience working with eagles. I believe that the more you know about something, the better chance you have at knowing how to control it. Now you will never have one hundred percent control over a wild animal, if anybody ever tells you that you will they are lying.
Golden eagles are amazing animals, and are a great companion to falconers all over the world. But I do not believe that all the falconers in a state should be punished for something that a different falconer had done and really had no control over. There should be changes in policies that allow falconers to regain the ability to fly golden eagles in Wisconsin.
3 comments:
I never heard of this sport before, it sounds pretty interesting if you like being around birds. I have heard of eagles swooping dfown and grabbing dogs, rabbitts, cats etc.I never witnessed this personally though.
I agree with you saying that they should not be allowed because of one accident. It was only doing what seemed natural. Noone would strike up a law suit if the eagle grabbed a small coyote. The fact that it was a pet, people dislike what happened. But America is notorious for law suits in ridicouls cases.
I knew that people falconed peregrine falcons but I have never heard of people falconing golden eagles. This was a great post and thanks for enlightening me. I could understand the concern for pet safety but I wouldn't be surprised if there were ways to train eagles to avoid pets as prey. I have experienced plenty of red tail attacks on my chickens at home in Mount Horeb but that still doesn't make me want to shoot them or have them banned from the sky. I also see parallels to this problem with the controversy surrounding dogs as pets. Humans have died from dog attacks. If the same standard that was applied to golden eagles got applied to dogs there would be uproar. It is too bad that golden eagle falconing was banned because of that accident.
If a golden eagle smoked my dog I wouldn't even be mad. I would probably shake the falconeers hand and walk home awestruck. While they can be dangerous and there is no "need" to have that particular bird, those are terrible reasons to deny qualified people the right to own one. I say fly them, I've always felt there are too many Pomeranians out there.
P.S. If you've never seen the Mongolians hunting wolves & fox with eagles, youtube it. Thats my bucket list hunt. Be sure to look at how they obtain them, it blew my mind, coolest thing I've ever seen.
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