Lawmaker apologizes for comment about beer-drinking hunters

Assemblyman Bob Blumenfield ruffled feathers and was blasted by Republicans on the Assembly floor Wednesday for describing a situation in which a hunter sits drinking a beer while hounds chase a bear or bobcat to exhaustion.

The Woodland Hills Democrat later apologized to colleagues, saying the thrust of his comment was not about hunters but about a form of hunting that he feels deserves to be banned.

The flap occurred during debate on Senate Bill 1221, ultimately passed by the Assembly, to ban use of dogs in hunting bear or bobcat.