The question is, can a species that was virtually extinct thirty years ago and which was saved only through captive-breeding and countless hours of monitoring/rescues/releases by recovery projects in virtually every state and province in Canada and US can be considered endangered one day and with the stroke of a pen suddenly not be at risk at all. Since it removes national protections/oversight and the need/requirement for same, will we find out there is a population decline when it suddenly is dipping toward local extirpation again and then it becomes endangered again? What's the point of having intermediate at risk categories then?
As for captures from the wild - not as easy as one might think, at least by ethical falconers. Can't touch them in the nest as that violates migratory bird act (international) and probably most states/provinces have protections for nestsites. So have to catch them on the wing ... unless you know what you are doing, not easy to do, especially not easy to do and not injure the bird - and injuring the bird would violate your permit - and yes, you have to be licenced/permitted to be a falconer/own falcons (as I recall).
I'm not sure about wild sourcing of peregrines for falconry (or heck, any other raptor species), when there are captive-bred birds which can be purchased as chicks which can make it much easier to acclimate to human companionship (and yes, to peregrines, we are their companion animals). An adult or subadult peregrine can be attitudinal and uncooperative all of its life - and its not like they don't take off on their "owners", they do all the time, all falconry birds can potentially, it just depends on the individual birds' relationship with their human. I will say that I have only rarely met a falconer that wasn't devoted to their birds and who treat them with the utmost of respect and adoration.
