'Blood Sport' Popular in California, but Lawmaker Calling for Ban

Feb. 7, 2006 — -- In the San Francisco Bay Area recently, a group of greyhound owners gathered at a restaurant before the sun came up to prepare for a day of hunting.

They wouldn't be doing the hunting themselves -- their animals would, in a blood sport called coursing, in which dogs chase and kill jack rabbits for points.

Coursing has been banned in several states and also in England. Enthusiasts of the sport defend it as simply another form of hunting, but animal rights activists call it barbaric, and one California assemblywoman has vowed to pass legislation to ban it.

Frank Morales, a computer analyst for the San Francisco school district, is vice president of the National Open Field Coursing Association, founded in 1964. Morales says coursing is actually more humane to the rabbits than shooting them with shotguns.

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

'Tally-ho!'

At the restaurant, the greyhound owners drew the order in which their dogs would compete. Then they drove their trailers to a farm field just off Interstate 80, and the heats began.

The dogs raced three at a time, while their owners walked at the front. The rest of the owners and spectators formed a straight line to the rear and tried to flush out jack rabbits from the woods. When a rabbit bolted into the open, the handlers released their dogs after the hunt master called, "tally-ho!"

The dogs get points for how aggressively they pursue the rabbit, for each time they make it turn and for killing it.

"It's a hundred-point maximum system, and there's up to 25 points for speed, agility and endurance," said Morales.

A few times, the rabbit got away -- through a fence or into a drainage pipe. But most of the time the rabbit died -- and usually a slow, painful death. One tug of war between dog and rabbit went on for a minute and 45 seconds.

Even Morales admitted: "I wouldn't want to die that way myself."

But the dog owners and coursing enthusiasts defend the sport by saying it's about the chase, not the killing of the animal. And they believe the dogs enjoy it.

"These two guys [dogs] are athletes," said one owner, Bob Bulman. "I mean, and just to watch them run is sheer pleasure."

Another owner, Loyce Ryan, said: "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 a day of open-field coursing.

"If I had my way, I would have been a track and field star," said one observer, Ann Standing. "Sort of vicariously, the dogs do it for me." She says coursing gives her a vicarious way to get the thrill of racing.

Barbaric or Natural?

The National Open Field Coursing Association, which has 12 chapters in California, 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 10 dogs.

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

"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," said Wayne Pacelle, the CEO of the Humane Society. "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 if state Assemblywoman Loni Hancock has her way. When KGO-TV showed Hancock pictures of rabbit coursing in action, she promised to sponsor a new law banning it.

"It's barbaric," Hancock said. "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 Hancock has her way, it will be the last. There are other ways to run a dog without using live rabbits. There are tournaments most every weekend where dogs chase artificial lures on a pulley or even a white garbage bag.

"It's amazing to think that people would be so insensitive as to think that is a way to recreate themselves," Hancock said.

Morales and other fans of the sport say coursing is natural for dogs. "I can see it in that dog's eyes every time they run," he said. "They live for this.This is what they've been bred for, for 1,000 generations and they are not really complete until they've been running like this."

This story was originally reported by Dan Noyes of ABC News station KGO-TV.