Why can't I keep an owl as a pet?

because you touch yourself at night

>>2474627
Good point

>>2474625
Because it will see you as his mate and will fuck up every other pet and human who approaches you in fits of jealousy.
Or so i've heard

Because owls are raptors, and raptors are very, very needy. Their diet is exclusively carnivore (there are some exceptions like burrowing owls, which also eat fruit, but even then, their diet is mostly carnivore), they need a large aviary for flying (raptors spend basically their whole life flying), they smell, they make a mess and they're very noisy. The average person is not able to handle ANY kind of raptor in their household. The closest things to raptors that a RESPONSIBLE pet owner should be able to take care are hornbills and ravens. Real raptors themselves should not be handled by anybody but people who work at zoos and falconers, and that's a for a good reason, for both the person and the bird.

>>2474825
Owls only fly to eat. Most of the time they won't fly. They're lazy ass raptors who'll only move for food. Also yep they'll make a mess. They shit anytime. They don't know if they're shitting or not (or so I've heard)

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>>2474825
>Owls are raptors

>>2474825
But what about those who keep birds of prey for the sport of falconry?

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>>2474834
If vultures get to be raptors, why can't owls?

>>2474876
Exactly, the average pet owner should not get any raptors, but falconers should. A falconer's entire time is basically devoted to the birds. The average person doesn't have the time for taking care of raptors and training them, nor the experience. A bird of prey's upkeep is pretty expensive too.

>>2474894
Falconers also have a ton of rules and laws they have to follow as well a mandatory apprenticeship period, and it's all for a reason.

>>2474876
>Birds of prey
>Falconers
Owls.
Not even for falconry.

>>2474625
you can, dipshit.
educate yourself.

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If some random japanese lad can keep two owls in his appartement, then I'm sure you can too.
https://twitter.com/SilverAssam

>>2477627
Can =/= should.

>>2477684
As long as it gets taken care of well and it lives a happy life.

>>2474825
Make that: medium sized aviary (small shed level), flies not much cause they lazy ass carnivores, kinda cheap gotta say, and quiet as balls if wild taken.

It's almost like you are retarded.

>>2474924
Politics is reason 1 and 2. Try getting falconers and FWS to change shit: falconers balk because they hate freedom and think non-falconers are English-level pet keeper retards, FWS balks because it is a tyrannical beurocracy and does not like giving up the kind of control it has. So, politics.

>>2476307
This nigga ist richtig.

>>2474625
Look, honestly, owls have a shit reputation as a falconry bird because people keep trying and ain't nobody found a working recipe for a reliable hunting partner that is worth a shit. As far as for a pet goes, "nobody" in the US pet keeps. Good luck finding "nobody", they get shamed out of falconer society and there is no alternative I know of so good fucking luck finding those guys.

>>2478142
>think non-falconers are English-level pet keeper retards

To be fair, a lot of people are retarded when it comes to pet care. Most people don't do one bit of research, not even skimming some care sheets and if it's not a cat or a dog, the chances of the animal receiving anything resembling proper care goes down massively.

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>>2478142
>they get shamed out of falconer society
A person that wants a pet doesn't give a flying wet fuck about "falconer society," whatever that is.

what's the penalty of being shunned by falconers? do they repossess your owl?

I'm shunned by falconers already as far as I can tell, does that mean I can have a pet owl? Your comment is very confusing. If I've never met a falconer, should I be concerned what they think of me?

do the same rules apply to other endeavors? Will I be shunned by the professional knife throwers association if I just use my knife for whittling? What if I use my spoon for eating instead of playing music, should I worry about the wrath of the redneck percussionists society?
who are these fucking falconers anyways?

>>2478148
In the US you need a falconer to sponsor you for 2 years. If you go and spew opinions that get you labeled persona non grata you can in some cases make it impossible to find someone willing to sponsor you. It's a bigger deal in places where there's only one or two falconers in the entire state. But even in larger places if you are a total stinker you might not be able to use falconry social networks to find someone to sponsor you, which again makes shit a lot harder / potentially impossible.

It's unique to US falconry so far as I'm aware. I don't know of anything else where you have to (by law) find someone to train you and those trainers are so sparse that you need to be careful not to unnecessarily offend all of them at the same time.

Once you get past apprenticeship you can do what you like but until then you should probably practice your ass kissing game. Of course that depends on sponsor, maybe you find someone that is totes ok with never ever hunting (I am not, honestly) but for best chances try to be the most bestest apprentice that has absolutely no controversial (to falconers) opinion whatsoever.

>>2478144
Excellent reasons for having standards. Not so good reasons for the warrantless search, government witch hunt seizure shit the 70s NAFA crew gave us and the modern ones do little to fix. Sometimes falconers claw freedoms back, but the precedent has been established, we done bent over for Uncle Sam, and every now and then he fucks some random falconers just to remind everyone who is really in charge.

If you want actual freedom, forego the license. You will probably be LESS likely to get in trouble than if you did it by the book. (I need to do the math on this; it is not farfetched.) Falconers get in trouble for literally made up shit (no really they ACTUALLY MAKE SHIT UP) while Joe Public skates by with a slap on the wrist for shotgunning anything that isn't a bald eagle, basically. Shotgun a falconer's bird and you aren't a falconer? Misdemeanor. Hope you can get the $2.5k you paid for that falcon back in civil court. Shotgun your own bird because it's about to die from a gnarly disease and you want to skip the suffering part? License pulled, any other birds you had siezed, probably die in custody, probably a felony. Shit's fucked, yo.

>>2478165
ah, so what we have is a group of elitist private citizens serving as the gatekeepers for a federal license.

sounds like a system ripe for abuse.
I can see the headlines now "The Federal Government Denied My Application For A Falconer's License Because I'm A Homosexual Black Wiccan!!!"
Lawyers would be lined up for blocks.

Can you sell sponsorships? Like say I get a license and then offer online "sponsorships" to anyone with $300 cash? Pay me, get your bird.

>>2478192
Yeah. The good sponsors will restrict their evaluation to whether you don't ignore hunting, aren't a PR disaster, and aren't complete dogshit at generally taking care of your bird. But there isn't any control on that, and they could just say "no" for any reason, or no reason at all.

>I can see the headlines now "The Federal Government Denied My Application For A Falconer's License Because I'm A Homosexual Black Wiccan!!!"
>Lawyers would be lined up for blocks.

There is one falconer whose opinion I highly respect who holds this exact position: it's only a matter of time until someone blows the current system up in court with something like this argument.

Selling licenses would likely get yours pulled. Iirc the state laws usually have a "we can deny your license renewal / pull your license if we want to" clause for situations they consider abuses of the rules, although these rules might also be something an outrage machine could leverage to oust an unpopular dude. I don't think that has happened yet though, but Murphy's law and all.

>>2474625
Because you touch yourself at night

>>2478194
>Murphy's law and all.
presumably that hasn't happened because the group is small and honest in their intentions. And choosy enough to keep the real douches out.

Plus 2 years requires a bit of stability and dedication. Anyways it's a very cool thing and I'm glad people are doing it. I hope it continues without interruption or fuckery.

>>2474625
I met a guy who kept an owl but with special permitting. It was one they used in Harry Potter. Basically it was barely a pet. he gave it a consistent home with food that he could return to every day and eat from in times of dearth. I've heard that doing that easily more than doubles an owl's lifespan and apparently it put him in a position to train the owl to drop brooms onto dining table n shiyet.

>>2478142
Owls are not good for falconry because they're so stupid. They have small brains because the eyes take up a good portion of the skull, and a good amount of brainpower goes toward said eyes.

I worked at a raptor rehab for a few years and the interactions with owls were far different from hawks, eagles, and falcons. Not to mention on certain species their talons are longer and sharper than most other raptors. Hell vultures are easier to handle and train.

>>2478213
There's been smaller scale witch hunts within falconry that resolved before they hit that level.

Define "real douche," "stability," and "dedication" in a way that doesn't make you sound elitist. This is perhaps the core problem.

>>2478230
Their intelligence wouldn't matter if someone could figure out how to hunt with one in spite of it. Not that the (lack of) intelligence isn't important, but if people could find a way around they would. God knows a damn lot of people want it for some reason.

>>2478248
Livestock was easier to train than this.

Then again, prey mentality is easily exploitable. You can influence an average ungulate's movement simply by your angle to its shoulder.

Owls can be trained, Harry Potter movies are proof of that. God knows it took them inhuman amounts of patience. I don't have that patience.

As far as OP goes, if they want to interact with owls, volunteering for a raptor rehab program is the way to go. They are begging on hands and knees for free labor because they get barely enough money to help the birds. When I was at one about 60% of our rehabs consisted of owls. The majority were barred, followed by Eastern screech. They were really sturdy at our facility for some reason