Public Safety
California wolf hazing bill clears narrow tear-gas carveout
The bill would let Department of Fish and Wildlife-authorized handlers use a projectile tear-gas weapon on wolves. A county sheriff or municipal police chief would have to sign off first.
AB 1673 would let approved wolf handlers use a projectile tear-gas weapon under local law-enforcement authorization. Current law generally limits tear gas to self-defense.
- AB 1673 creates a narrow tear-gas exception for wolf hazing.
- Only state-authorized handlers could use it.
- A county sheriff or police chief would have to approve the use.
- Existing law generally limits tear gas to self-defense.
- In California, ranch-country conflicts with wolves can turn on seconds, distance and whether the people on the ground have any legal tool that fits the moment
In California, ranch-country conflicts with wolves can turn on seconds, distance and whether the people on the ground have any legal tool that fits the moment. AB 1673 would give Department of Fish and Wildlife-authorized wolf handlers one more option: a tear-gas weapon that expels a projectile, if a county sheriff or the chief of a municipal police department approves it.
The bill is written as a carveout, not a broad rewrite. Existing law generally treats tear gas as a self-defense tool and otherwise makes its use a crime. AB 1673 would add a tightly defined exception for aversive conditioning on wolves, the kind of nonlethal pressure meant to push animals away from people, livestock or homes.
A second gate before the weapon can be used
The change matters because it keeps the power to use the weapon unusually narrow. Only people already authorized by the Department of Fish and Wildlife could use the exception, and even then the local law-enforcement approval acts as a second gate.
That makes the bill less about opening up tear gas in general and more about giving wildlife managers a controlled response in a specific conflict. The practical effect would be to leave the larger tear-gas rule intact while creating a special lane for wolf hazing in limited situations.