Senate Bill 1221 was signed into law prohibiting the use
of dogs to pursue bear and bobcat for hunting.
The bill grants the Department of Fish and Game (DFG) the authority to
capture any dog not under the control of a handler or owner if the dog is
pursuing a bear or bobcat, and it grants authority to capture or kill any dog
that is inflicting injury or threatening to inflict injury upon a bear or
bobcat.
Animal rights activists claim the new legislation as a
victory for humane hunting. Some call hound hunting, cruel or
unsportsmanlike. The Humane Society
backed the bill, calling the use of hounds a “bloodsport”.
Tahoe’s Bear League also supported passage of the ban.
The Bear League is a local volunteer group, started in 1998 after the
Department of Fish and Game killed a mother bear and her cub in Homewood.
State Assemblyman Jim Nielsen was against the ban. Nielsen calls the ban an “unnecessary and
costly piece of legislation”. He claims that the ban will infringe on his
constituents “tradition and culture”. DFG
records show nearly $1 million in 2010 bear tag application fees, with half of
those applicants coming from hunters who used dogs.
Many bear hunting guides use hounds to hunt. Hound-hunting is apparently an effective way
of providing their customers with a bear.
California is the 15th state to prohibit
hound-hunting of bears. The law will go
into effect on January 1, 2013.
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