CA: Ban Cruel Hounding of Bears and Bobcats

CA S.B. 1221—Ban on Hounding Bears/Bobcats 
ASPCA Position:  Support 
Action Needed:  Call your state assemblymember in Sacramento to urge him or her to pass this important humane bill out of the Appropriations Committee so it can be voted on by the full Assembly!

Thanks to your support, California Senate Bill 1221 to ban the cruel and unsporting practice of “hounding” bears and bobcats has passed the State Senate and is making its way through the Assembly, but we need to give it another big push to make sure it doesn’t die this week! 

If you received an email from the ASPCA directing you to this page, our records indicate that your assemblymember serves on the Appropriations Committee, where the bill is stuck. We know the hunters are trying to get committee members to kill the bill. It is important that they also hear from constituents like you who favor the bill’s passage. 

What You Can Do

Please call your California state assemblymember now to request that he or she support S.B. 1221 and vote to pass it out of the Assembly Appropriations Committee. 

Look up your state assemblymember’s name and phone number here. 

Don’t be intimidated by making the call—calling is easy, fast, and by far the most effective thing you can do! You can refer to the following talking points if you wish, but keep it short and simple:

• A large 2011 Mason-Dixon Poll indicated that 83 percent of Californians oppose bear hounding. 
• Less than one percent of Californians hunt, yet many people are offended, bothered, disrupted and upset by bear hounding activities. 
• Due to this type of hunting, animal shelters are often inundated with cast-off or injured hunting dogs no longer wanted by their owners. If an animal is perceived as being a poor hunting animal, he or she is often simply abandoned or dumped for local residents and animal control to contend with. The dogs are victims of this practice as well. 
• Only 18 states still allow this practice; California should not be one of them. Even in Pennsylvania and Montana, where hunting is more popular, this practice has been banned.
• Often a bear will turn on the dogs giving chase and severely injure one or more of them.
• This is not a fair sport. It is a disgrace and should be banned in California.

Thank you, California!