Quote Originally Posted by rkumetz View Post
I am way more worried by the fact that USFWS bureaucrats are regulating something that they understand nothing about.
I had a CITES person ask me how my bird could possibly cross the Canadian border if I did not transport it.

I am also more worried about animal rights morons who outnumber us managing to outmaneuver us making this discussion irrelevant.
I agree that those are concerns. Where they fall in the overall prioritization is up for debate. And I can think of some more pressing issues than the ones we are currently discussing, but I am pleased to hear they are being addressed. I will be even more pleased if they are successfully litigated, which is an entirely different matter than drumming up some papers and filing them in federal court.

However, it really is a pretty big deal that the US FWS and your state wildlife department are telling you to surrender your 4th amendment rights to parade around with a glorified chicken on your arm. Especially since congress explicitly told the US FWS they were not allowed to do so in the language of the MBTA.

Now to be perfectly fair on this issue many states are clear in that an inspection is not the same as a search, and must be done at the convenience and pleasure of the permittee. My state is one them that has been very extreme about this. However, this is not always well respected by the agents performing those searches. And there have been threats that if you do not submit to them you can expect your next permit renewal to be denied. During that time period I previously mentioned when there was a rash of inspections, there was a case where a falconer in California asked the agent if they had a warrant when he grew tired of the inspection that was going on. The agent said no, and the falconer told the agent to hit the streets and the agent left without any argument.