Anti-Coursing Bill Introduced

California Assembly Member Loni Hancock has made good on her promise to introduce legislation banning open field coursing.  AB 2110 would make the sport a misdemeanor crime punishable by up to six months in jail, as much as $1,000 in fines, or both.  Here's the text of the bill:

BILL NUMBER: AB 2110

INTRODUCED BILL TEXT

INTRODUCED BY Assembly Member Hancock

                        FEBRUARY 17, 2006

   An act to add Section 597.4 to the Penal Code, relating to crimes.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

  AB 2110, as introduced, Hancock  Animal cruelty: dogs: field coursing.
   Existing law makes it a crime to commit animal cruelty, as specified.
   This bill would provide, in addition, that any person who knowingly engages in any activity in which a dog is left untethered and allowed to track and pursue any rabbit, hare, or fox and that results in the injury or death of the rabbit, hare, or fox is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for a period not to exceed 6 months, by a fine not to exceed $1,000, or by both that imprisonment and fine. The bill would provide that nothing in its provisions shall prohibit the use of dogs in the management of livestock or hunting, or the training of dogs, or the use of equipment in the training of dogs, for any purpose not prohibited by law. By creating a new crime, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program upon local governments.

  The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.
   This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
   Vote: majority. Appropriation: no. Fiscal committee: yes.
State-mandated local program: yes.

THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:

   SECTION 1.  Section 597.4 is added to the Penal Code, to read:
   597.4.  (a) Any person who knowingly engages in field coursing is guilty of a misdemeanor punishable by imprisonment in a county jail for a period not to exceed six months, by a fine not to exceed one thousand dollars ($1,000), or by both that imprisonment and fine.
   (b) For the purposes of this section, "field coursing" includes any activity in which a dog is left untethered and allowed to track and pursue any rabbit, hare, or fox and that results in the injury or death of the rabbit, hare, or fox.
   (c) Nothing in this section shall prohibit any of the following:
   (1) The use of dogs in the management of livestock, as defined by Section 14205 of the Food and Agricultural Code, by the owner of the livestock, by the owner's employees or agents, or by other persons in lawful custody of the livestock.
   (2) The use of dogs in hunting as permitted by provisions in the Fish and Game Code, including, but not limited to, Section 3286, 3509, 3510, 4002, or 4756 of the Fish and Game Code, and by the rules and regulations of the Fish and Game Commission.
   (3) The training of dogs, or the use of equipment in the training of dogs, for any purpose not prohibited by law.

  SEC. 2.  No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII B of the California Constitution.

We'll be there in the next month when an Assembly committee debates the anti-coursing measure.  You can check on the bill's status at the Assembly's website.

Mistaken Identity: Officials Keep Quiet

Last April, we brought you a striking example of problems in the child support system.  A man with a common name had been wrongly accused of being a deadbeat dad not once or twice, but four times.  County departments of child support services had gone so far as to contact the man’s employer and to begin the process of attaching his wages.  After we investigated how this could happen, county and state officials promised to flag his file and make sure he wasn’t wrongly targeted again.  Well, somehow, it’s happened.  That’s our follow-up investigation that aired this evening.

Now, the back story:  this investigation highlights a trend we’re seeing – more often, public officials are simply refusing to be interviewed.  They’ll often give a general written statement that doesn’t address the key issues, and a written statement doesn’t allow for the free flow of information – no follow-up questions.  Our staff’s been wondering aloud whether some public relations firm’s been dishing out advice to government officials: “If you’re faced with a negative story, just don’t answer the questions.  You have nothing to gain, and above all, don’t go on camera.” 

I want to know if this bothers you, the viewer and constituent, as much as it does me.  Do public officials have a duty to answer your concerns through a reporter?  Do they have to do it with an interview or is a written statement enough?  I’d be curious to hear your opinion.

Obviously, you can make parallels to what's happening with Vice President Dick Cheney.  He laid low for four days after the hunting accident and then chose Fox, the conservative cable news network, as the forum.

What’s your take?

Blue's Real: The Coursing Debate

I want to thank the hundreds of people who have sent e-mails, screened our coursing reports on-line, posted to our chat board, and commented on this blog.  The response has been overwhelming. 

I don’t intend to address the various viewpoints.  After all, my opinion doesn’t really matter, and despite what some of our critics might think, it didn’t play into our decision to pursue the story or the way that we presented it.  This was, in many ways, a typical project for us – we found something that few of our viewers knew was happening in their community.  We documented it, and sought out reaction from both sides.  As ABC 7 News Director Kevin Keeshan blogged, “We have no dog in this hunt.”

As you know, the debate has gotten very heated and personal at times.  I can take the criticism – you develop thick skin after 25 years in the business.  But, I would like to encourage people to focus on the issues and not sling insults at each other, as we move forward with the debate and follow-up reports.

Along those lines, the “Grand Course” is scheduled for this weekend near Lost Hills, California.  I’ve described it as the “Super Bowl” of coursing – the best dogs from the twelve coursing clubs compete each year.  Officers from the National Open Field Coursing Association told us last week they were considering suspending the championships because of the controversy. 

We asked for permission to videotape the event, but they refused.  On Friday, NOFCA President Fiona Bennett e-mailed us to say, “Our official position on the status of the Grand Course is ‘no comment’.”  Clearly, the NOFCA is concerned about protests, and with good reason.  Protests against open field coursing in England played a role in Parliament banning it last year.  We’ll keep researching the “Grand Course” for possible follow-ups.

California State Assembly Member Loni Hancock is moving forward with her measure to ban open field coursing.  The deadline to introduce new legislation is February 24^th.  We’ll be there when/if hearings take place.

Let me address some of the inaccuracies in the comments section of our blog.  Some questioned whether the rabbit was, in fact, squealing while the dogs were pulling at it. The sound may appear faint on your speakers, but I can tell you from having been there at the time, I heard it.  There’s no question.  And, the sound we broadcast came from that rabbit.

It’s true that some viewers on our chat board posted the names and contact information of NOFCA members.  When alerted to this, we took the information down.  You should know that the NOFCA published the information on its website, but we don’t condone the posting of personal information on our website for the purpose of harassment. We also contacted one of the principals from our report who had personal information posted.  He told us he’s received no harassing phone calls or e-mail.

Others questioned our use of the term “blood sport”, and we had a healthy discussion in our editorial meetings about that exact topic.  We had to find ways to describe coursing for the vast majority of people who hadn’t heard about it, so we went to the dictionary.  The Oxford American lists “blood sports” as “sports involving killing”.  Merriam-Webster on-line says, “blood sport … a sport or contest (as hunting or cockfighting) involving bloodshed.”  Our use of the expression wasn’t a value judgment, just a statement of fact.

Some of the comments to my first blog on coursing questioned my knowledge of the greyhound’s history – some e-mail even doubted the fact that I own a greyhound.  Here’s a picture of Blue, my ten-year-old running buddy:

 

I got a greyhound after investigating the racing industry 15 years ago.  We videotaped racing greyhounds being put down by a veterinarian because they weren’t fast enough.  We documented the use of live rabbits in training the dogs; it was not a pretty sight.  We spent days at tracks from Florida to Kansas, and we met greyhounds arriving at San Francisco International that had been flown in by adoption groups.  Throughout the process, the dogs impressed me as gentle, affectionate, beautiful creatures.  Blue’s been a great pet.  I know the greyhound’s history well, and have read about its roots in ancient Egypt.  I knew about lure coursing in which dogs chase artificial prey or white garbage bags.  And, yes, I was surprised to learn that Northern California has open field coursing in which dogs race to catch live rabbits.  Most of our viewers were also surprised.  More to come …

Open Field Coursing

Our investigation into “open field coursing” Sunday evening after the Super Bowl drew a lot of response from the Bay Area, across the country, Canada and overseas.  I’m constantly amazed by the reach our stories have, since we began streaming them on-line.  Most people were pleased that we had done the story and upset about the sport in which dogs race to catch and kill jackrabbits.  The minority complained about us even covering the topic and questioned how our investigation began in the first place. 

Here’s the back story, and it shows how our investigations often begin – not with a tip or an article in a newspaper, but with a reporter’s curiosity.  I’ve been in contact with a member of a dog adoption group about problems with a local breeder.  I’ve never done a story on that topic, and the case is making its way through the courts.  After one recent e-mail, I went to the breeder’s website and something sparked my interest.  The site mentioned “open field coursing”.  I’ve covered animal issues for years – even own a greyhound myself – and never heard of the sport, so I began searching the Internet. 

That led to a website for the National Open Field Coursing Association.  This picture contained in the group's latest newsletter immediately caught my attention:

I thought it told a compelling story – dogs dressed in their racing jackets, bearing down on a jackrabbit running for its life.  I learned from the site that the NOFCA is the umbrella group for twelve clubs with all sorts of dogs, running in these tournaments.  The site also contained more than sixty pages of race rules, schedules and rankings of the top ten dogs with pictures, including this one:

The newsletter also instructed members that it’s their responsibility to deliver the coup de grace to the rabbit, if the dogs had not killed it.  I knew most Californians had no idea these tournaments were being held up and down the state.  I knew we had a story.

Bottom line:  this investigation was born out of a curiosity for what’s happening around us.  No conspiracy with animal rights groups, as a web-viewer from Kentucky alleged.  Just a reporter’s instinct.  These are the stories I most enjoy – showing viewers something that’s happening in their community that they never knew before.

A few final thoughts:  the NOFCA website went down within two hours of our broadcast Sunday night.  We don’t know if it was hacked or if the members took it down themselves – we’re checking on that.  A lot of the e-mail we received asked about the time and location of the “Grand Course”, the year-end tournament for the fastest dogs.  We’re working on a follow-up, and should have more information Thursday on ABC 7 News at 6pm.