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	<ns0:Description>
		<ns0:Id>20250AB__103898AMD</ns0:Id>
		<ns0:VersionNum>98</ns0:VersionNum>
		<ns0:History>
			<ns0:Action>
				<ns0:ActionText>INTRODUCED</ns0:ActionText>
				<ns0:ActionDate>2025-02-20</ns0:ActionDate>
			</ns0:Action>
			<ns0:Action>
				<ns0:ActionText>AMENDED_ASSEMBLY</ns0:ActionText>
				<ns0:ActionDate>2025-04-21</ns0:ActionDate>
			</ns0:Action>
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		<ns0:LegislativeInfo>
			<ns0:SessionYear>2025</ns0:SessionYear>
			<ns0:SessionNum>0</ns0:SessionNum>
			<ns0:MeasureType>AB</ns0:MeasureType>
			<ns0:MeasureNum>1038</ns0:MeasureNum>
			<ns0:MeasureState>AMD</ns0:MeasureState>
		</ns0:LegislativeInfo>
		<ns0:AuthorText authorType="LEAD_AUTHOR">Introduced by Assembly Member Hadwick</ns0:AuthorText>
		<ns0:Authors>
			<ns0:Legislator>
				<ns0:Contribution>LEAD_AUTHOR</ns0:Contribution>
				<ns0:House>ASSEMBLY</ns0:House>
				<ns0:Name>Hadwick</ns0:Name>
			</ns0:Legislator>
		</ns0:Authors>
		<ns0:Title> An act to add Sections 3960.7 and 3960.8 to the Fish and Game Code, relating to bears. </ns0:Title>
		<ns0:RelatingClause>bears</ns0:RelatingClause>
		<ns0:GeneralSubject>
			<ns0:Subject>Bears: hunting: use of dogs.</ns0:Subject>
		</ns0:GeneralSubject>
		<ns0:DigestText>
			<html:p>Existing law delegates to the Fish and Game Commission the power to regulate the taking or possession of birds, mammals, fish, amphibians, and reptiles in accordance with prescribed laws. Existing law authorizes the commission to establish, extend, shorten, or abolish open seasons and closed seasons for the taking of game mammals, including bears. Existing law makes it unlawful to take any bear with a firearm, trap, or bow and arrow without first procuring a tag authorizing the taking of that bear, as specified.</html:p>
			<html:p>Existing law makes it unlawful to permit or allow a dog to pursue a bear at any time. Existing law establishes various exceptions to that prohibition including the use of dogs to pursue a bear pursuant to a depredation permit if certain conditions are met.</html:p>
			<html:p>This bill would require the
			 commission to establish seasons during which a person would be authorized to allow dogs to pursue a bear if the person does not injure or kill the bear or allow the bear to be injured or killed while engaging in the activity, as specified.</html:p>
			<html:p>The bill, after the Department of Fish and Wildlife finalizes the update to its 1998 Bear Management Plan, would authorize the commission to establish a bear hunting season during which a person, pursuant to a bear tag, would be authorized to allow dogs to pursue a bear in any area determined by the commission. </html:p>
		</ns0:DigestText>
		<ns0:DigestKey>
			<ns0:VoteRequired>MAJORITY</ns0:VoteRequired>
			<ns0:Appropriation>NO</ns0:Appropriation>
			<ns0:FiscalCommittee>YES</ns0:FiscalCommittee>
			<ns0:LocalProgram>NO</ns0:LocalProgram>
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				<ns0:Election>NO</ns0:Election>
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	<ns0:Bill id="bill">
		<ns0:Preamble>The people of the State of California do enact as follows:</ns0:Preamble>
		<ns0:BillSection id="id_69A0CFA2-8577-4C8D-B2C4-B795B70FB4EE">
			<ns0:Num>SECTION 1.</ns0:Num>
			<ns0:Content>
				<html:p>The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(a)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					California currently has more black bears than any other state in the contiguous United States and their numbers continue to increase unabated statewide.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(b)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					Black bear
				populations are beyond the social carrying capacity, with bears occupying habitat they have never occupied before, including suburban and urban areas.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(c)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					Commensurate with
				the unabated increase in black bear numbers, incidences of encounters between bears and humans, and public safety concerns, have escalated statewide.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(d)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					California’s first confirmed death due to attack by a black bear took place in 2024.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(e)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					The Department of Fish and Wildlife has not updated the state’s Bear Management Plan (plan) since 1998.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(f)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					The current overpopulation of black bears in the state will be confirmed via an updated plan that the department is on schedule to finalize imminently.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(g)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					The final draft of the revised plan estimates the state’s black bear population at 60,000 to 80,000 bears, which is
				two times higher than what the department previously estimated.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(h)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					Because bears are apex predators, they have no natural predators. Bear populations should be managed as other game animals through sustainable harvest.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(i)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					Except for taking problem black bears with a depredation permit, there is no other way other than legal hunting to manage their numbers, ensure public safety, and keep bear populations in balance with the ecosystem and their prey.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(j)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					Black bears were traditionally hunted in California using pursuit by dogs, which is by far the most effective method of take for harvesting bears.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(k)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					Senate Bill 1221 (Chapter 595 of the Statutes of 2012) prohibited the use of dogs for hunting and the simple pursuit of bears beginning in 2013.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(l)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					Since the passage of Senate Bill
				1221, annual bear harvest by hunters has been substantially reduced.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(m)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					Since bears have not been pursued by houndsmen with dogs for over a decade, black bears have now lost the fear of humans and dogs that historically have helped keep them away from suburban or urban
				areas.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(n)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					California does not limit the number of bear tags they sell annually to hunters, with over 30,000 sold in 2024.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(o)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					California does limit the number of bears that can be annually harvested by hunters at 1,700.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(p)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					The annual harvest limit of 1,700 was set years ago when the state’s bear populations were much lower.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(q)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					Before Senate Bill 1221 placed a prohibition on using dogs as a method of take for harvesting bears, the annual harvest cap of 1,700
				bears was reached nearly every year.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(r)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					Since pursuit by dogs was prohibited as a method of take for black bears in 2013 the annual harvest has typically been closer to 1,000 and never exceeded more than 1,441 bears.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(s)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					As of March 18, 2025, the department is only reporting 972 bears harvested by hunters in 2024.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(t)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					Twice the department requested the Fish and Game Commission to increase the 1,700 annual harvest quota for black bears to increase opportunity and to work towards reducing and balancing the population. Both times the commission rejected that request siding with the emotional objection of animal-rights interests.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(u)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					The final draft of the updated plan notes that the maximum sustainable annual hunter harvest of black bears is near to 16 percent. Yet, hunters in the state have been harvesting less than 3 percent.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(v)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					In addition to escalating threats to human safety, another consequence of black bear populations being out of balance with the ecosystem is the impact that has on other predator species, including mountain lions, and their prey.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(w)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					The final draft of the plan states that research has demonstrated that black bears “frequently displace mountain lions from their kills, a behavior called kleptoparasitism.” The final draft of the plan states that studies have “found black bears at 77% of mountain lion kills, and black bears displaced mountain lions from them 72% of the time. Black bear kleptoparasitism caused mountain lions to increase their kill rates substantially to recoup energetic losses to black bears and mountain lion kill rates in this system were the highest reported for the species across their range.”
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(x)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					The steady increase in the population of black bears in our state is directly contributing to the undesirable changes the state is seeing in mountain lion behavior, the upsurge in conflict between mountain lions and humans, and the substantial increase in mountain lion depredation of livestock in the County of El Dorado.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(y)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					The final draft of the plan also notes that the overpopulation of black bears is putting severe stress on California’s deer populations.
				The plan states that “high rates of predation on deer fawns and kleptoparasitism of mountain lion kills by black bears have likely contributed to a declining deer population in this area.”
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(z)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					Additional research performed about a decade ago suggested that up to 80 percent of deer fawns are killed in their first 30 days of life by black bears.
				</html:p>
				<html:p>
					(aa)
					<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
					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, resulting in an unacceptable increase in conflict between human and bears, human fatalities, crashing deer populations, and harmful impacts to mountain lions and other predators that compete for their prey.
				</html:p>
			</ns0:Content>
		</ns0:BillSection>
		<ns0:BillSection id="id_F2E2BBB8-BE08-46BA-81BC-B5F41008DECE">
			<ns0:Num>SEC. 2.</ns0:Num>
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				Section 3960.7 is added to the 
				<ns0:DocName>Fish and Game Code</ns0:DocName>
				, to read:
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				<ns0:LawSection id="id_2B49FFDC-EF51-4A97-BEDA-FB2AEDBDAB23">
					<ns0:Num>3960.7.</ns0:Num>
					<ns0:LawSectionVersion id="id_56FDEBA8-91A9-4989-9A25-605D33D461E8">
						<ns0:Content>
							<html:p>
								(a)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								As used in this section, the terms “bear” and “pursue” have the same meanings as defined in Section 3960.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(b)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								Notwithstanding Section 3960, a person may allow dogs to pursue a bear during seasons established pursuant to subdivision (c). A person shall not injure or kill a bear or allow a bear to be injured or killed while engaging in the activity authorized by this section.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(c)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The commission shall establish seasons during which a person may allow dogs to pursue a bear pursuant to subdivision (b).
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(d)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								This section does not authorize a
						person to allow dogs to pursue a bear in a game refuge or ecological reserve if hunting within that refuge or ecological reserve is unlawful.
							</html:p>
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			</ns0:Fragment>
		</ns0:BillSection>
		<ns0:BillSection id="id_EACAD965-5B87-4ACE-A8A2-4C278E456451">
			<ns0:Num>SEC. 3.</ns0:Num>
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				Section 3960.8 is added to the 
				<ns0:DocName>Fish and Game Code</ns0:DocName>
				, to read:
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			<ns0:Fragment>
				<ns0:LawSection id="id_4C176833-DA9D-4BDD-836C-4D206000800B">
					<ns0:Num>3960.8.</ns0:Num>
					<ns0:LawSectionVersion id="id_1C7B63BA-EE82-4E7B-9344-D5C1DD71E5CC">
						<ns0:Content>
							<html:p>
								(a)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								As used in this section, the terms “bear” and “pursue” have the same meanings as defined in Section 3960.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(b)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								Notwithstanding Section 3960, the commission may establish a bear hunting season during which a person may allow dogs to pursue a bear pursuant to a tag issued pursuant to Chapter 9 (commencing with Section 4750) of Part 3 of Division 4 in any area determined by the commission.
							</html:p>
							<html:p>
								(c)
								<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
								The commission shall not open a season pursuant to subdivision (b) until the department finalizes the update of its 1998 Bear Management Plan.
							</html:p>
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