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Assembly OKs ban on hunting bears with dogs

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SACRAMENTO — State lawmakers on Wednesday moved to protect college athletes and child actors and to outlaw the use of dogs for hunting bears and bobcats.

The hunting bill drew the most heated debate, dividing lawmakers along urban and rural lines as much as party lines.

Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield (D-Woodland Hills) called for an end to the “inhumane and savage” practice in which dogs are set loose to chase bears and bobcats until the prey are cornered in trees where a hunter can shoot them.

That’s “an acute brutalization of wildlife for no reason,” said Assemblyman Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge).

Several lawmakers from more rural areas, including Assemblyman Jim Nielsen (R-Gerber), criticized the bill as an attack on a long-standing outdoor tradition.

“The overt, absolute intent is to diminish hunting,” Nielsen charged. He said the “silly putty” bill took up the time of lawmakers who should be focused instead on the state’s severe fiscal problems.

Assemblyman Tim Donnelly (R-San Bernardino) drew a rebuke from colleagues after suggesting that lawmakers from the cities keep their noses out of the business of rural residents and turn their attention to murderous street gangs that he said were populated by illegal immigrants.

The Assembly approved the bill on a 44-29 vote and sent it back to the Senate, where it had already passed after being introduced by Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance). Senators must now vote on amendments to SB 1221 that would allow dogs to be used for hunting related to animal research or involving bears deemed a danger to the public.

Debate had been more subdued earlier on a measure that would protect athletes at colleges, including UCLA and USC, from losing financial aid if they suffer serious injuries on the field.

The bill, which the Senate passed 24 to 10 in final legislative action, would require California colleges that receive more than $10 million a year from sports television contracts — also including Berkeley and Stanford — to pay certain medical costs for student athletes with game injuries.

“Neither personal injury nor poverty should dim the dreams of a student athlete pursuing a college degree, particularly when their performance has enriched their college,” said Sen. Alex Padilla (D-Pacoima), author of the measure.

The bill says that if a student’s athletic scholarship is not renewed because of an incapacitating injury resulting from participation in an athletic program, the university would have to provide an equivalent scholarship to allow the student to complete an academic degree.

University officials say they already help students who sustain injuries that end their college athletic careers, but Padilla said that is done by choice and his measure, SB 1425, would provide the weight of law.

The Senate also approved a measure aimed at protecting child performers from being molested by adults who serve as talent managers or photographers or hold other jobs in the entertainment industry. The legislation would require those with unsupervised access to child performers to get a permit and background check from the state labor commissioner as proof that they are not registered sex offenders.

Sen. Ron Calderon (D-Montebello) cited recent high-profile cases in which child entertainers were allegedly molested by adult managers.

The adults “use their job to lure unassuming children and parents to trust them,” Calderon said before the 35-0 Senate vote, which sends AB 1660 back to the Assembly for action on amendments.

The bill was opposed by a group called California Reform Sex Offender Laws, which said it is too broad because some registered offenders include people involved in nonviolent offenses such as public urination and streaking.

patrick.mcgreevy@latimes.com

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