BILL TO BAN HUNTING DEER WITH DOGS INTRODUCED, CALIFORNIA TO JOIN 39 OTHER STATES THAT HAVE PREVIOUSLY
BANNED THE CRUEL PRACTICE
SACRAMENTO – A bill to end the use of dogs to hunt deer was introduced by
Senator Ben Hueso
(D-San Diego) on Tuesday.
SB 1041, the
Hunting Deer with Dogs Prohibition Act
, sponsored by animal advocacy organization
Social Compassion in Legislation
, will make California the 40
th
state to end the practice of using dogs to hunt deer, which currently is the last species of game mammals allowed to be hunted with dogs in the state.
“Deer have no chance against a pack of trained dogs,” said
Senator Ben Hueso
. “Thirty-nine states have recognized the cruel and grotesque nature of hound hunting, and it is time that California join them.”
Animal advocates have long argued that using dogs to hunt deer is brutal and violates hunters’ own ethical rule of “fair chase.” Their rule states a hunter must not gain an "unfair advantage," such as when the game does not have reasonable chance of escape. Although bucks are often the target of dog-deer hunting, both bucks and does run faster than dogs during the initial minutes of a chase but lack the lung capacity of dogs. As the deer become exhausted, they are cornered, caught, attacked, and mauled with severe or lethal injuries before the hunter can physically arrive on the scene to shoot them.
“Not only does hound-hunting violate hunters’ own ethical rules, but this type of hunting is particularly damaging to non-target wildlife and our environment,” said
Judie Mancuso
, founder and CEO of Social Compassion in Legislation. “A pack of hounds tramping through our ecosystems is likely to come across a wide range of species beyond deer, not to mention companion animals and humans, and can injure or kill simply because that is what they are trained to do. Californians and our wildlife should not be terrorized by a few hunters who insist on training dogs to kill.”
