Fox pen hunting is officially considered part of Louisiana's folklife heritage.
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Fox pen hunting is officially considered part of Louisiana's folklife heritage.
Gov. Bobby Jindal signed into law this week a bill by Republican Rep. Sherman Mack, of Livingston, that declares the sport should be preserved.
The sport involves fenced-in preserves where hunting dogs are trained to pursue foxes.
Supporters of the bill say Louisiana has a rural tradition of fox pen hunting.
Critics of the proposal call it a "blood sport" in which a fox is run down by 20 or 30 dogs that attack it until it dies.
But Mack has said opponents were looking at information about fox pen hunting in other states. He said that in Louisiana the foxes are chased up a tree and aren't killed.