STAND. COM. REP. NO. 2623

Honolulu, Hawaii

RE: S.B. No. 3043

S.D. 1

Honorable Ronald D. Kouchi

President of the Senate

Thirty-Third State Legislature

Regular Session of 2026

State of Hawaii

Sir:

Your Committees on Water, Land, Culture and the Arts and Agriculture and Environment, to which was referred S.B. No. 3043 entitled:

"A BILL FOR AN ACT RELATING TO HUNTING,"

beg leave to report as follows:

The purpose and intent of this measure is to:

(1) Require the Department of Land and Natural Resources to adopt rules regarding safe and humane hunting practices of feral pigs and hunting dog welfare standards;

(2) Establish requirements for the hunter education program instruction; and

(3) Include the use of dogs to torture wildlife or game mammals as torture in the second degree.

Your Committees received testimony in support of this measure from the Animal Legal Defense Fund, Kauaʻi Animal Welfare Society, Hawaiian Humane Society, Animal Interfaith Alliance in Britain, Bird and Bee Hawaii Animal Sanctuary, Humane World for Animals, and twenty-five individuals.

Your Committees received testimony in opposition to this measure from the Native Hawaiian Gathering Rights Association and eleven individuals.

Your Committees received comments on this measure from the Department of Land and Natural Resources and one individual.

Your Committees find that dogs in the State are often treated like ohana and sometimes aid people in hunting and providing food for families and communities. Unfortunately, your Committees note that a substantial amount of hunting dogs are neglected by their owners, sometimes abandoned and a threat to public safety thereafter, and even used to commit egregious acts of cruelty on feral pigs that go beyond standard or traditional hunting practices. This measure will enforce the integrity of hunting practices and further the humaneness and well-being of hunting dogs, game animals, and the people of the State.

Your Committees have amended this measure by:

(1) Inserting legislative findings that clarify that the purpose of this measure only applies to bad actors who intentionally and knowingly conduct illegal or egregious acts and not to hunters using regular and traditional practices;

(2) Inserting an effective date of July 1, 2050, to encourage further discussion; and

(3) Making technical, nonsubstantive amendments for the purposes of clarity and consistency.

Your Committees note the concerns raised in testimony by the Department of Land and Natural Resources that the Department can only regulate hunting activities on land under its jurisdiction and not an individual's decisions in the field or at home, making rules to the latter effect imposing subjective ethical judgments that cannot be easily enforced in real-world conditions. Accordingly, your Committees respectfully request that subsequent Committees to which this measure is referred consider these concerns.

As affirmed by the records of votes of the members of your Committees on Water, Land, Culture and the Arts and Agriculture and Environment that are attached to this report, your Committees are in accord with the intent and purpose of S.B. No. 3043, as amended herein, and recommend that it pass Second Reading in the form attached hereto as S.B. No. 3043, S.D. 1, and be referred to your Committees on Judiciary and Ways and Means.

Respectfully submitted on behalf of the members of the Committees on Water, Land, Culture and the Arts and Agriculture and Environment,

________________________________ MIKE GABBARD, Chair

________________________________ CHRIS LEE, Chair