Bill Would Ban Use of Dogs in Hunt for Cougars

With no votes to spare, the Senate on Friday passed a bill by Sen. Nicholas C. Petris (D-Oakland) that would outlaw the use of dogs in hunting mountain lions, a prohibition opponents charged is the equivalent of hunting the animals without a gun.

If it becomes law, the bill, opposed by hunter and gun-owner organizations, would take effect in 1988 and would not apply to a newly authorized lion season this year.

The bill went to the Assembly on a 21-12 vote. Petris attempted to win approval of the bill twice earlier in the week but fell short of the votes he needed. He said senators had agreed to vote for the bill, but “the National Rifle Assn. went to work on them and they pulled off.”

“I’m getting very weary of the awesome power of the NRA in this Legislature,” Petris said during debate on Thursday. “This is not a gun bill at all. . . . We ought to be able to say to our friends in the NRA, ‘You’ve gone too far on this one.’ ”

However, Sen. James W. Nielsen (R-Rohnert Park) argued that mountain lions have become so numerous throughout California that they are “encroaching on urban areas.”

Nielsen, echoing complaints that outlawing dogs in the hunting of mountain lions is the equivalent of hunting them without a firearm, charged that the Petris bill would “preclude the hunting of the mountain lion in a most effective way.”

Dogs customarily are used to track the elusive mountain lion, usually over long distances, and to chase the animals up trees, where they are shot.

Mountain lions have not been hunted in California for 15 years under legislative and administrative moratoriums. A 79-day season for hunting mountain lions will start Oct. 10 in parts of Northern California.