Iâve been a hunter for more than half a century and a falconer for 35 of those years. Falconry is an ancient hunting craft dating back some 4,000 years to Central Asia, where it was a practical means of putting meat on the table long before the advent of firearms. It's where we've come from, and part of what makes us Homo sapiens. Thatâs why watching part of our heritage being disrespected and demeaned by one of our own is so hard to take. Utilizing raptors protected at both state and federal levels, falconry is the most heavily regulated field sport in the country, and thatâs as it should be. Time and again, falconry has been shown to have no significant impact on the resource, enabling us to take raptors from the wild and honor a partnership between man and raptor that has endured for millennia.