California's Assembly Bill 1038, introduced by Assemblymember Heather Hadwick, aims to legalize the use of trained dogs to chase black bears, reversing a current prohibition. The bill responds to increasing human-bear conflicts, highlighted by a tragic 2023 bear attack that resulted in a woman's death. While Hadwick argues that hounding will help instill fear in bears, opposition from groups like Tahoe's Bear League warns that it may exacerbate conflicts by pushing bears into residential areas instead of keeping them away from human interactions.
AB 1038 will reintroduce a 'pursuit season,' that will allow trained dogs to haze bears without harming them, Hardwick's office said in a news release.
The only place that those dogs, those hounds would be able to haze bears and chase bears is back in the wilderness - and those bears are not a problem.
It's going to do the opposite. It's not at all, remotely, a bill that would help teach the bears to be afraid of people and keep them away from people.
This bill would allow hunters to use GPS-collared dogs to chase and tree bears so that the hunters may kill the bear more easily than having to track it without dogs.
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