California Assembly Member Sydney Kamlager-Dove’s Assembly Bill 1254, which would make it unlawful to “hunt, trap or otherwise take bobcat,” is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Appropriations Committee on August 12. The hearing will take place at 10 a.m. in Room 4203 in the capitol building. AB 1254 has already passed the Senate Natural Resources and Water Committee by a vote of 5 to 2. The bill passed out of the Assembly by a vote of 54-21.
* * * *Take Action Today! California sportsmen and women should call their state senator and ask them to vote NO on AB 1254. Members can find their senator by using the Sportsmen’s Alliance Legislative Action Center Directory.* * * *
If passed into law, AB 1254 would place a moratorium on bobcat hunting until at least January 2025. However, after the minimum five-year ban, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) may only re-open a season following the completion of a management plan, which has been estimated to cost $2.5 million!The California Department of Finance opposes the bill because “it could exacerbate the Fish and Game Preservation Fund’s structural imbalance, which would hinder the Department’s ability to carry out core programs and eliminates a source of revenue.”“In typical fashion, the most anti-hunting state in the nation is sneaking in through the backdoor to ban hunting by passing legislation sponsored by the Humane Society of the United States,” said Luke Houghton associate director state services. “The five-year moratorium is nothing more than a de facto bobcat hunting ban. Does anyone really believe that the California legislature will pony up the $2.5 million dollars needed to reopen the season in 2025?” Bobcat trapping in California was banned by the California Fish and Game Commission in 2015.
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