Falconry is not conservation

Do wild animals belong in the wild? Not according to the Iowa Raptor Project and the University of Iowa. Raptors used to be rehabilitated at the Macbride Raptor Project. Now, instead, with the IRP, there is a focus on falconry. Raptors are purchased or trapped in the wild and forced into a life of captivity and used for marketing purposes. From an article in the Iowa City Press-Citizen last year, I learned that Ryan Anthony trapped his own female golden eagle from the wild. She will now spend her life in captivity.

The University of Iowa is not content to use raptors for marketing at athletic events. They will now be marketing to grandparents and kids via the “Grandparents University” this summer.

Instead of teaching children to have respect and empathy for raptors, the children will learn about the implements of control used to make the raptors perform for humans. All of this while the Raptor Center pretends to be about conservation. Falconry is not conservation. It involves capturing, training and housing birds of prey for use in hunting.

Children should be taught to have respect and empathy for wild animals. What they are doing with falconry at the Iowa Raptor Project is perverse and needs to stop.

Lynn Gallagher

Solon