Open Field Coursing

[helenscott08]

Received from a friend who caught the story. Now it's important that Loni Hancock hear from us, today, if possible! Please let her know that you read it in Our Reader, the e-list for Sonoma People for Animal Rights ([email protected]).

Dian


Did anyone else see the channel 7 news this evening? Their I-Team reported on the legal (in California) blood sport of dogs being used to catch and kill wild jack rabbits. I urge you all to contact State Assembly Member Loni Hancock, [email protected], to support legislation to ban this "sport."

I-Team Uncovers Blood Sport In Bay Area

California is known as a very progressive state in terms of animal rights. But the ABC 7 I-Team has uncovered a blood sport underway right here in the Bay Area, that's been banned in England. It's called "open field coursing" -- all types of dogs race to catch and kill jackrabbits.

A group of greyhound owners meet at a restaurant in Fairfield before the sun comes up, to draw the order in which their dogs will compete. They drive their trailers to a farm field just off Interstate 80, and the heats begin.

Frank Morales, one of the owners,: "It's a hundred point maximum system and there's up to 25 points for speed, agility and endurance."

The dogs race three at a time. They walk at the front. with their owners. The rest of the owners and spectators form a straight line to the rear and try to flush out jackrabbits. When one bolts, the handlers can't release their dogs until the hunt master makes the call.

"Tally-ho!"

The race is on. The dogs get points for how aggressively they pursue the rabbit, for each time they make it turn, and for killing it. A few times on this day, the rabbit got away -- through a fence or into a drainage pipe. But most of the time the rabbit died, and usually a slow, terrible death. We'll stop the picture here, but this tug of war went on for a minute and forty-five seconds.

ABC7's Dan Noyes: "That's got to be a tough way to die for a rabbit."
Frank Morales: "Well, I wouldn't, I wouldn't want to die that way myself."
Owner to dog: "Ooh, you got blood on you."

These people defend the sport by saying it's not about killing the rabbit, it's about the chase.

Bob Bulman: "These two guys are athletes, I mean, and just to watch them run is sheer pleasure."
Loyce Ryan: "I guess if I was a rabbit I would think it is cruel, but not if I was a greyhound. I would love it."

Most of these dog owners live in Northern California. Others flew in from Seattle or Canada, just for this day of open field coursing.

Ann Standing: "If I had my way, I would have been a track and field star, and I'm a spaz, so sort of vicariously, the dogs do it for me."

At the races we met Frank Morales, a computer analyst for the San Francisco Unified School District. He's also the vice president of the National Open Field Coursing Association, founded in 1964. It's the umbrella group for 12 clubs up and down the state that do the same thing. Morales says this is just another form of hunting that's easier on the rabbits than shotguns.

Frank Morales: "There's a lot less chance of a hare being injured and having to limp off somewhere. They are either caught or they get away, whereas people with shotguns often wound animals and leave them out there."

The association keeps a Web site with coursing schedules for all sorts of dogs including Afghans, Salukis and Irish Wolfhounds. It also posts the results of each tournament and pictures of the top ten dogs.

All this comes as a surprise to the major animal rights groups we contacted, including the Humane Society of the United States.

Wayne Pacelle: "It's great to have field trials. It's great to have dogs running around. We celebrate that, we love that, we think that's super. But they shouldn't be chasing live animals and tearing them apart."

The sport was hugely popular in England, where thousands of people would turn out for a single event. But it was banned last year, along with fox hunting. In this country, many states prohibit the sport, but not California. There's even a Department of Fish and Game regulation that says, "Coursing dogs may be used to take rabbits."

That may change. (This WILL change! Editor)

Loni Hancock: "It's barbaric."
After we showed State Assembly Member Loni Hancock pictures of rabbit coursing, she promised to sponsor a new law banning it.
Loni Hancock "I think this is very in keeping with other legislation I've introduced and I think this should not be happening in California."
Rabbit coursers across the state are preparing for their own Super Bowl. What they call "The Grand Course" takes place in two weeks. If Loni Hancock has her way, it will be the last.
Loni Hancock: "It's amazing to think that people would be so insensitive as to think that is a way to recreate themselves."
Frank Morales: "I can see it in that dog's eyes every time they run. They live for this, this is what they've been bred for, for one thousand generations and they are not really complete until they've been running like this."
You don't have to use live rabbits to get a dog to run. There are tournaments most every weekend where dogs chase artificial lures on a pulley or even a white garbage bag.
We know there will be fall-out from our investigation and we'll let you know what happens.

For more on the story, including some shocking video:
https://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?se...eam&id=3874872

State Assembly Member Loni Hancock's website:
https://democrats.assembly.ca.gov/members/a14/


Not to hurt our humble brethren is our first duty to them,
But to stop there is not enough. We have a higher mission -
To be of service to them wherever they require it.
~Francis of Assisi