Though California bans using dogs to hunt bears, a Northern California lawmaker wants to legalize “hounding” — chasing bears with dogs, without the intent of killing the pursued animal.
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In introducing AB 1038, Assemblymember Heather Hadwick (R-Alturas) said black bears are out of control in California and that hazing them in a legal “pursuit season” would be one way to keep them away from human communities.
“The inability of houndsmen to pursue bears with dogs for the past decade has substantially contributed to California’s perilously high black bear populations and dangerous changes in their behavior,” the bill says.
It cites the state’s first known killing of a human by a black bear, in 2023 in Downieville. It also claims that mountain lions have been driven to kill more livestock because bears are taking the lions’ kills.
Using dogs to hunt bears was banned in 2013, after Gov. Jerry Brown signed into law a bill by Ted Lieu, then a state senator and now a member of Congress.
Among the critics of Hadwick’s proposal is the Tahoe-based BEAR League, which challenges her numbers on the state’s bear population. The Humane Society of the United States supported Lieu’s 2012 bill and more recently has proposed suspending, at least temporarily, all bear hunting in California.
AB 1038 may be heard in committee as early as next month.
