As Sky said, It's all how you look at it. I'm all for less regulation and small govenment so from my perspective the new federal regs are a step in the right direction.
Depending on the state that you live in you may already have full adoption of the new regs, some new version of them, or your state may not have changed anything yet and you are still under the "old" regs.
The goal of this whole thing was for the feds to turn falconry managment over to the individual states instead of having the dual license system that is currently in place.
The new federal regs as a whole are much more relaxed than before but it is still up to each individual state to set their own regs but there is a deadline for them written into the new federal regs (Jan 1 2014 I think) for when falconry will be turned over to state control Vs. the current system that is in place.
Some people grin and bear it, other people smile and change it.
I'm all for less regulation and small govenment so from my perspective the new federal regs are a step in the right direction.
"with great power comes great responsibility." Spiderman
dont get me wrong, with out the new regs i wouldnt have met the love of my life. but WE, as falconers, must not abuse or break the trust they have given us. gonna let you guys in on a secret. circuses are regulated by the, either the USDA or FDA i cant remember, and we are very close to being regulated by them.
this sight tells it all. and if you dont think falconry could fall under that type of definition, think of the club meet. a bunch of passage, wild, birds being held or fed very little to hunt. that is all hypothetical, but very real. we dodged a bullet here in texas, the old falconry licenses lady we had here was an anti. she had told many falconers that "if she had her way then birds would not be allowed to be tethered to a perch, they could only be free lofted."
she got released from her job for obsessing on busting falconers. she spent alot of time on forums looking for people local to post illegal stuff and neglected her other duties.
moral of the story, follow the rules and dont break them. cause there are people looking to derail you.