An amendment slipped into the 2026 U.S. Congressional Farm Bill, reportedly to protect racing greyhounds, contains wording that could lead to sweeping bans on working dog training practices, hunters say.
H.R. 5017, the Greyhound Protection Act, was first introduced in 2025 and now sits before the U.S. House Agriculture Committee as an amendment to the Farm Bill.
Opponents include the American Kennel Club (AKC). The club says the act includes vague language, such as banning the use of live animals or “live lures” in dog training or competitive canine events.
What’s A ‘Live Lure?’
The groups says the way the amendment is written, a ban on “live lures” could undermine time-honored methods of training dogs to hunt or track game, or herd livestock.
“Because these terms lack clear statutory definitions, they could be interpreted in ways that affect lawful hunting activities and traditional dog training methods,” according to the AKC.
“For example, controlled exposure to live birds, or other game animals, is a widely accepted and essential component of preserving unique breed characteristics and training bird dogs, retrievers, hounds, and other working dogs,” the organization stated.
Veteran Wyoming houndsman Doug Boykin told Cowboy State Daily said the vagueness of the wording could possibly count mountain lions, birds, or even domestic livestock as “live lures” for dogs.
“They could do that with cow dogs. They could do that with bird dogs. They could do that with any dogs, really.” said Boykin, who has hunted with hounds for decades in Wyoming and Arizona. "What about police dogs? Isn’t that using a live lure when they train them with people?”
Avid bird hunter Dan Kinneman of Riverton has trained numerous hunting dogs. He said that live birds, usually pigeons, are used for field trials or competitive events for bird hunting dogs.
Even when bird hunters aren’t actively hunting, they might take their dogs out to track and flush pheasants during the off-season, to keep the dogs’ skills and senses sharp, Kinneman told Cowboy State Daily.
He wondered if that would fall under a “live lure” ban. Even if it does, he also said any such bans might be impossible to enforce.
“When guys take their dogs out into the field to train, what are they going to do, follow them around?” he said.
Been Doing It For Centuries
The Greyhound Protection Act is meant to prevent commercialized cruelty toward racing hounds, according to the measure’s proponents.
Boykin said he agrees with the AKC’s assessment that it’s an attempt to push a broader agenda against hunting and dog training.
“To the normal man reading it, it’s about greyhounds. They try to stick it in an amendment and sneaking it through, thinking nobody reads it,” he said.
The only way to effectively train dogs is to put them in the field with the animals they’re bred to hunt or herd, Boykin said.
“Greyhounds have been doing what they do for centuries,” Boykin said. "Hunting dogs have been doing what they do for centuries, it’s in their blood."
Kinneman agreed that tapping into a bird hunting dog’s skill set requires taking the pooch out into the field, smelling and pursuing live birds when it’s young.
“I give mine on-the-job training,” he said. "I start them when they’re still puppies."
Mark Heinz can be reached at mark@cowboystatedaily.com.
