https://www.akc.org/legislative-alerts/u-s-congress-amendment-to-farm-bill-could-threaten-akc-events-hunt-training/
March 31, 2026
Please share this important information with your club members, family and friends.
An amendment to the House Farm Bill (HR 7567) proposed by animal rights groups threatens the future of AKC performance events and recognized hunt training techniques.
Please join AKC and leading sportsmen’s organizations in defending responsible dog enthusiasts, sportsmen and trainers. Please contact your member of the U.S. Congress and respectfully ask Congress to remove language derived from the “Greyhound Protection Act of 2025” (HR 5017) from the Farm Bill before final passage.
Scroll down for easy ways to make a difference.
Why This Matters
While the stated intent of the Greyhound Protection Act is to address concerns related to commercial greyhound racing, the provision attached to the Farm Bill is overly broad and risks eliminating or banning standard training and event practices for certain field trials, performance events, lawful hunting with dogs, and other widely accepted training methods used by responsible dog owners and handlers.
In fact, the amendment goes well beyond “commercial” greyhound racing – which currently only exists in one state; it also bans live lure training, use of live lures, and open field coursing events involving live animals.
Because these terms lack clear statutory definitions, they could be interpreted in ways that affect lawful hunting activities and traditional dog training methods. 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. Dog trainers and hunters commonly use farm‑raised birds such as pigeons, ducks, or pheasants to teach scent recognition, steadiness, retrieval skills, and humane handling of game. These practices help ensure that hunting dogs perform their work effectively and minimize harm to wildlife during hunts.
Without clear exemptions, prohibiting the use of live animals in canine events that showcase breed characteristics, responsible hunting, or dog training could effectively eliminate long-standing, responsible training methods.
These restrictions could easily be interpreted or amended to severely impact or eliminate:
- Field trials,
- Hunt tests,
- Earthdog competition,
- Barn Hunt,
- Nite Hunts, and
- Other organized dog sports/events that are conducted under carefully controlled conditions.
It could also easily be interpreted or amended to impact other popular and responsible running / racing events that do not use live lures, including:
- Lure Coursing,
- Coursing Ability Tests (CAT); or
- Fast CAT events.
Two Ways You Can Make a Meaningful Impact
Better yet …
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Click here to find out who your member of Congress is.
Tell them:
- You are a voting constituent (including city/town you live in) and a responsible dog enthusiast.
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Respectfully ask them to oppose overly broad language from the Greyhound Protection Act (HR 5017) that has been added to the Farm Bill.
- Explain that it does nothing to improve the wellbeing of dogs, and as written could ban or lead to bans on responsible dog training practices that are essential to developing well trained working and performance dogs, as well as popular responsible dog events in the community. Share your positive experiences with these events, if appropriate.
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Note that the Farm Bill is one of the most important and broadly supported pieces of legislation considered by Congress. It should not become the vehicle for language that disrupts lawful hunting traditions, events that showcase breed characteristics, responsible dog ownership, and established canine training practices nationwide.
Learn more about AKC Events that could be affected:
Thank you.
The time you take today to fight animal extremism and protect your dogs really does make a difference!
