Let the dogs loose on uncontrolled bears SACRAMENTO - Admittedly I'm biased about bears. I don't think they're hunted enough in California. I say hunt them down with dogs. Hunt them with drones. Maybe roll in the tanks. I've awakened to this conclusion while watching brazen black bears grow out of control in this state. They should be properly managed just like much of our wildlife: by hunting. But they should be hunted humanely - with hounds. That's why Gov. Jerry Brown should veto a fuzzy-headed bill, SB 1221 by Sen. Ted Lieu (D-Torrance), to outlaw the use of dogs in hunting bears and bobcats. I'm ambivalent about bobcats. They're not terrorizing people and trashing homes as bears are. Here are a couple of other outdoorsy suggestions for the governor. He should: Sign a bill, AB 1527 by Assemblyman Anthony Portantino (D-La Cañada Flintridge), to prohibit people from openly carrying rifles and shotguns in malls, coffee shops and similar public places. If gun worshipers won't use common sense voluntarily, the rest of us should force them to. Veto a bill, SB 1148 by Sen. Fran Pavley (D-Agoura Hills), that's rather fishy. Pun intended. It would seem to tilt the state away from planting family-oriented, self-sustaining rainbow trout - as it historically has - and toward trying to improve what remains of California's native fishery. Most planted rainbows would even have to be sterilized. While he's at it, Brown might as well veto a companion bill, AB 2402 by Assemblyman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael), that would change the name of the Department of Fish and Game to the Department of Fish and Wildlife. Save the cost of new stationery and a website redo. More later on guns and trout. Bears are wreaking havoc, especially in the mountains. They're not cute or cuddly. They're criminal and too coddled. At Lake Tahoe, the bear burg that I'm most familiar with, the beasts have been crashing deck parties and grabbing appetizers. They're trashing homes looking for full-course meals. One recently was hanging out on a popular beach, perhaps waiting for a salmon run. She was poached. We can't use our condo's heavy-duty, latched garbage can anymore. The bears have mastered it. Trash has to be toted 100 yards to a dumpster. It's not like these marauders are endangered. Their California numbers have at least doubled, maybe tripled in the last 30 years and now total around 32,000, according to state biologists. Their only predators are human hunters. The state allows just 1,700 bears to be killed each fall with a limit of one per hunter. Fewer than half are killed using dogs. Here's one reason why hunting with hounds is the most humane way to take a bear: If dogs chase the animal up a tree, the hunter has a close-up, point-blank shot and a quick kill. "It's literally lights out; the bear never knows what happened," says Josh Brones of Sacramento, who hunts bears with hounds. We don't want to take a shot at a bear from long distance.