Preliminary Injunction Filed

[rkumetz]

What about the lady that is making it her crusade to end falconry drops a dime on every falconer in the state just to hassle falconers? https://stopfalconry.com

We have a lot of those irrational tree hugging granola munching types here. In fact, National Audubon told me that they consider our state chapter to be a "fringe element".
What we do have going for us is a strong field sports tradition and in recent years our relationship with F&W has become more cordial to the extent that they would likely
view a nut like that as abusing state resources by trying to use F&W for her personal crusade against falconry.

It would seem to me that falconers encouraging law enforcement to come and see that they have nothing to hide would let some air out of her zeppelin of stupidity.

That is precisely the sort of lunatic that I worry about when I think about falconry deregulation. If there are no rules which we participate in making to abide by then emotional ideas about what we should
and should not do with animals become the only test. Poor regulations that are livable are, IMO, preferable to being subject to the emotional dandruff of lunatics.

[goshawkr]

It would seem to me that falconers encouraging law enforcement to come and see that they have nothing to hide would let some air out of her zeppelin of stupidity.

That is precisely the sort of lunatic that I worry about when I think about falconry deregulation. If there are no rules which we participate in making to abide by then emotional ideas about what we should
and should not do with animals become the only test. Poor regulations that are livable are, IMO, preferable to being subject to the emotional dandruff of lunatics.

To your first (quoted) point, I believe that it is naive to think that when said enforcement officers show up that they will 1) understand suitable falconry facilities, even were some to jump up and punch them in the nose and 2) understand esoteric and complex and a lengthy body of rules about a subject in which they have no expertese and even less interest. It is not a rare scenario for citations and seizures of birds to happen during administrative inspections for either or both of those reasons. Of the adminstrative inspections I am aware of, I believe ~10% resulted in seizure or a citation, which is a shockingly high rate.

To your second point, just exactly how is it going to empower these types if the provisions are removed from the rules that allow enforcement to drop by on a whim? You have expressed some concern about this court case attracting attention, but the groups that want to do away with falconry are already well aware of us.

There have been scenarios where that proverbial whim was created by members of the public. Indeed, it could even be easily argued that Operation Falcon was created by complaints from the general public - although in that fine example of abused enforcement power they had warrants when they dropped by. I know of a few cases where the

Realistically, its only a minor inconvience to an enforcement officer to get a warrant if they really think something is afoot.

[rkumetz]

To your first (quoted) point, I believe that it is naive to think that when said enforcement officers show up that they will 1) understand suitable falconry facilities, even were some to jump up and punch them in the nose and 2) understand esoteric and complex and a lengthy body of rules about a subject in which they have no expertese and even less interest. It is not a rare scenario for citations and seizures of birds to happen during administrative inspections for either or both of those reasons. Of the adminstrative inspections I am aware of, I believe ~10% resulted in seizure or a citation, which is a shockingly high rate.

To your second point, just exactly how is it going to empower these types if the provisions are removed from the rules that allow enforcement to drop by on a whim? You have expressed some concern about this court case attracting attention, but the groups that want to do away with falconry are already well aware of us.

There have been scenarios where that proverbial whim was created by members of the public. Indeed, it could even be easily argued that Operation Falcon was created by complaints from the general public - although in that fine example of abused enforcement power they had warrants when they dropped by. I know of a few cases where the

Realistically, its only a minor inconvience to an enforcement officer to get a warrant if they really think something is afoot.

Come on Geoff, I am not naive. I understand that most LE people have little comprehension of falconry or the nuances of how the regulations apply. That is why those of us who would rather avoid unfortunate confrontation reach out and try to educate them. Build a relationship with members of their community and all of a sudden you start to gain respect through association.
Remember when your parent's told you not to hang out with the wrong kind of kids? When I moved here a warden showed up to inspect me. He was courteous and informed me up front that
he knew little to nothing about falconry other than what he had read in My Side of the Mountain as a kid. Then he proceeded to start taking photos. I asked him if his report was so detailed that
he needed photos and he said "No, if you don't mind these are for my grandson. He will think this is cool".

We have started an initiative to do falconry boot camps for our wardens and we have taken our falconry coordinator hawking with an open invitation to all to come out with us or come visit if they would like to learn about falconry.

Your thought process also has a bit of an indictment of the law enforcement community in general as being inept or generally abusing power. I realize that you probably did not intend to
carry it that far but as a fire chief I work with LE people all the time. The vast majority are dedicated and reasonably easy to get along with if you take into account that they spend their day
dealing with assholes and most people treat them poorly just because they have a badge and gun. Yes, there are bad apples but making that assumption going into an interaction with LE
is likely to make things go the wrong way fast.

With respect to the second point, cruise around NAFEX and you will find more than a couple of threads where falconers have used the fact that the sport is regulated both federally and at the state level to weave their way around local regulations, zoning problems and HOA rules. The same is true of the animal rights nitwits. If you are conducting your falconry within the bounds of
the regulations they can whine and "drop a dime" on you but inevitably you will be judged by the letter of the law rather than their emotional drool. You and I know that no matter how bad the
rules are (yes, I realize you think they are worse than I do ) but I know you are smart enough to know that you stand a better chance with the regs than defending yourself against a
posse of irrational emotionally driven nuts who think that wildlife should be "lookie no touchie".

Your final point is a very good one. With respect to all of that PLF crap, if CA law enforcement operating in their climate of over regulation wants to harass you they will simply get a judge with animal rights activist sympathies to issue a warrant.