Tomorrow, Tuesday, January 23, at 11 a.m. in room 301 of the Senate, the Senate Committee on Agriculture is scheduled to hear a bill that could turn your sporting and hunting dog into a dangerous dog. The Sportsmen’s Alliance supports protecting the public from dangerous dogs, but not at the expense of dogs that are engaged in legal service to their owners and handlers.
The original language in the dangerous dog statute included an exemption for hunting dogs engaged in any legal hunt or training procedure, dogs engaged in training or exhibiting in legal sports such as obedience trials, conformation shows, field trials, hunting/retrieving trials, and herding trials when engaged in any legal procedures. It also included strict enclosure requirements for dangerous dogs.
If Senate Bill 1156 becomes law, that will change everything. SB 1156 removes the exemptions for dogs engaged in legal hunting and trialing (field, hunting/retrieving, and herding) and even includes conformation shows. The bill also removes the word “dangerous” in the definition of the proper enclosure, which can lead this open interpretation to mean the proper enclosure for all dogs and not just dangerous dogs.
Please use our Take Action button to email the members of the committee urging them to OPPOSE SB 1156 unless amended, returning the exemption to protect sporting and hunting dogs and any dog that is working in legal service to its owner, along with clarifying the “proper enclosure” section to mean dangerous dogs and not all dogs.
Don’t forget to share this important message with your family, friends, fellow sportsmen, and dog enthusiasts, urging them also to email the committee members asking them to OPPOSE SB 1156 unless amended.
About the Sportsmen’s Alliance: The Sportsmen’s Alliance protects and defends America’s wildlife conservation programs and the pursuits – hunting, fishing and trapping – that generate the money to pay for them. Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation is responsible for public education, legal defense and research. Its mission is accomplished through several distinct programs coordinated to provide the most complete defense capability possible. Stay connected to Sportsmen’s Alliance: Online, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
