HOUSE BILL 284

57th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2025

INTRODUCED BY

Matthew McQueen and Pat Woods

AN ACT

RELATING TO ANIMALS; AMENDING DEFINITIONS IN THE LIVESTOCK CODE; ALLOWING FERTILITY CONTROL, RELOCATION AND ADOPTION OF FREE-ROAMING HORSES UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES; ALLOWING A FREE-ROAMING HORSE EXPERT TO CONTROL THE POPULATION OF FREE-ROAMING HORSES ON CERTAIN LAND THROUGH CERTAIN METHODS; REQUIRING THE NEW MEXICO LIVESTOCK BOARD TO APPROVE THE QUALIFICATIONS OF A FREE-ROAMING HORSE EXPERT; ALLOWING THE NEW MEXICO LIVESTOCK BOARD TO MAKE RULES REGARDING THE APPROVAL OF THE QUALIFICATIONS OF A FREE-ROAMING HORSE EXPERT; PROHIBITING THE SLAUGHTER OR EXPORT FOR SLAUGHTER OF FREE-ROAMING HORSES; PROVIDING A PENALTY.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:

     SECTION 1. Section 77-2-1.1 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1993, Chapter 248, Section 2, as amended) is amended to read:

     "77-2-1.1. DEFINITIONS.--As used in The Livestock Code:

          A. "animals" or "livestock" means all domestic or domesticated animals that are used or raised on a farm or ranch, including the carcasses thereof, and exotic animals in captivity and includes equines, cattle, sheep, goats, swine, bison, poultry, ostriches, emus, rheas, camelids and farmed cervidae upon any land in New Mexico. "Animals" or "livestock" does not include canine or feline animals;

          B. "bill of sale" means an instrument in substantially the form specified in The Livestock Code by which the owner or the owner's authorized agent transfers to the buyer the title to animals described in the bill of sale;

          C. "bison" or "buffalo" means a bovine animal of the species bison;

          D. "board" means the New Mexico livestock board;

          E. "bond" means cash or an insurance agreement from a New Mexico licensed surety or insurance corporation pledging surety for financial loss caused to another, including certificate of deposit, letter of credit or other surety as may be approved by the grain inspection, packers and stockyards administration of the United States department of agriculture or the board;

          F. "brand" means a symbol or device in a form approved by and recorded with the board as may be sufficient to readily distinguish livestock should they become intermixed with other livestock;

          G. "brand inspector" means an inspector who is not certified as a peace officer;

          H. "carcasses" means dead or dressed bodies of livestock or parts thereof;

          I. "cattle" means animals of the genus bos, including dairy cattle, and does not include any other kind of livestock;

          J. "dairy cattle" means animals of the genus bos raised not for consumption but for dairy products and distinguished from meat breed cattle;

          K. "director" means the executive director of the board;

          L. "disease" means a communicable, infectious or contagious disease;

          M. "district" means a livestock inspection district;

          N. "equine" means a horse, pony, mule, donkey or hinny;

          O. "estray" means livestock found running at large upon public or private lands, either fenced or unfenced, whose owner is unknown, or that is branded with a brand that is not on record in the office of the board or is a freshly branded or marked offspring not with its branded or marked mother, unless other proof of ownership is produced;

          P. "free-roaming horse expert" means an individual, a corporation or an organization, including a corporation's or organization's contractors, determined by the board to possess qualifications, including demonstrated expertise in:

                (1) conducting free-roaming horse herd surveys;

                (2) analyzing the ownership status and animal carrying capacity of land in conjunction with environmental health; and

                (3) understanding free-roaming horse habitat, biology, behavior, management strategies and population dynamics;

          [P.] Q. "inspector" means a livestock or brand inspector;

          [Q.] R. "livestock inspector" means a certified inspector who is granted full law enforcement powers for enforcement of The Livestock Code and other criminal laws relating to livestock;

          [R.] S. "mark" means an ear tag or ownership mark that is not a brand;

          [S.] T. "meat" means the edible flesh of poultry, birds or animals sold for human consumption and includes livestock, poultry and livestock and poultry products;

          [T.] U. "mule" means a hybrid resulting from the cross of a horse and [an ass] a donkey; and

          [U.] V. "person" means an individual, firm, partnership, association, corporation or similar legal entity."

     SECTION 2. Section 77-2-30 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2005, Chapter 236, Section 1, as amended) is amended to read:

     "77-2-30. EQUINE RESCUE OR RETIREMENT FACILITY--REGISTRATION--BOARD POWERS AND DUTIES--FEES.--

          A. As used in this section, "facility" means an equine rescue or retirement facility, including a public or private reserve or [private] preserve, that [advertises or solicits for equines and provides lifelong care or finds new owners for equines that are unwanted or have been neglected or abused or captured wild equines that cannot be returned to their range] provides lifelong care or finds new owners for unwanted, abused or neglected equines or captured free-roaming horses, but does not include a federal facility.

          B. A facility shall not operate in New Mexico unless registered by the board.

          C. The board shall:

                (1) register facilities that meet the requirements of this section and rules promulgated by the board;

                (2) annually consult with representatives from the equine industry, equine rescue organizations and veterinarians on facility standards; and

                (3) after consideration of recommendations by national organizations for the care of unwanted equines and equine rescue and retirement facilities, promulgate rules for facilities, including:

                     (a) health and sanitary requirements;

                     (b) standards for barns, paddocks, pastures and ranges;

                     (c) qualifications of the facility staff;

                     (d) provision of veterinary care;

                     (e) feeding and watering requirements;

                     (f) transportation;

                     (g) a process to issue a temporary capacity waiver to a facility for the purpose of transferring equines in the custody of the board to a facility; and

                     (h) other requirements necessary to ensure the humane care of equines.

          D. The board may establish fines and penalties not exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000) per violation for violations of this section.

          [D.] E. The board may charge the following fees:

                (1) an initial inspection and registration fee of not more than two hundred fifty dollars ($250);

                (2) an annual inspection and registration fee of not more than one hundred dollars ($100); and

                (3) reinspection fees of not more than one hundred dollars ($100).

          [E.] F. Fees collected pursuant to this section shall be deposited in the New Mexico livestock board general fund and may be used to carry out the provisions of this section and Section 77-2-31 NMSA 1978."

     SECTION 3. A new section of Chapter 77, Article 2 NMSA 1978 is enacted to read: 

     "[NEW MATERIAL] FREE-ROAMING HORSE EXPERT--APPROVAL OF QUALIFICATIONS--RULES.--

          A. An individual, a corporation or an organization that provides free-roaming horse or herd management services, administers free-roaming horse fertility control or captures a free-roaming horse for relocation in New Mexico shall be registered by the board; provided that this subsection shall not apply to the federal bureau of land management or the United States forest service acting in accordance with applicable federal law, regulations and policy.

          B. The board shall:

                (1) promulgate rules regarding the determination and approval of qualifications and registration of free-roaming horse experts;

                (2) register free-roaming horse experts that meet the requirements of this section and the rules promulgated by the board; and

                (3) revoke the registration of a free-roaming horse expert that fails to comply with Section 77-18-5 NMSA 1978, or related rules, and apply other penalties that the board deems appropriate.

          C. The board may charge the following fees:

                (1) an initial approval fee of not more than five hundred dollars ($500); and

                (2) an annual registration fee of not more than two hundred fifty dollars ($250).

          D. Fees collected pursuant to this section shall be deposited in the New Mexico livestock board general fund and may be used to carry out the provisions of this section."

     SECTION 4. Section 77-18-5 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2007, Chapter 216, Section 1) is amended to read:

     "77-18-5. [WILD HORSES--CONFORMATION, HISTORY AND DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID TESTING--SPANISH COLONIAL HORSES--BIRTH] FREE-ROAMING HORSES--HUMANE MANAGEMENT--FERTILITY CONTROL--PROHIBITIONS.--

          [A. As used in this section:

                (1) "public land" does not include federal land controlled by the bureau of land management, the forest service or state trust land controlled by the state land office;

                (2) "range" means the amount of land necessary to sustain a herd of wild horses, which does not exceed its known territorial limits;

                (3) "Spanish colonial horse" means a wild horse that is descended from horses of the Spanish colonial period; and

                (4) "wild horse" means an unclaimed horse on public land that is not an estray.

          B. A wild horse that is captured on public land shall have its conformation, history and deoxyribonucleic acid tested to determine if it is a Spanish colonial horse. If it is a Spanish colonial horse, the wild horse shall be relocated to a state or private wild horse preserve created and maintained for the purpose of protecting Spanish colonial horses. If it is not a Spanish colonial horse, it shall be returned to the public land, relocated to a public or private wild horse preserve or put up for adoption by the agency on whose land the wild horse was captured.

          C. If the mammal division of the museum of southwestern biology at the university of New Mexico determines that a wild horse herd exceeds the number of horses that is necessary for preserving the genetic stock of the herd and for preserving and maintaining the range, it may cause control of the wild horse population through the use of birth control and may cause excess horses to be:             

                (1) humanely captured and relocated to other public land or to a public or private wild horse preserve;

                (2) adopted by a qualified person for private maintenance; or

                (3) euthanized; provided that this option applies only to wild horses that are determined by a veterinarian to be crippled or otherwise unhealthy.]

          A. A state, county or municipal government or governmental subdivision may enter into an agreement with a registered free-roaming horse expert to conduct free-roaming horse surveys and management and determine land carrying capacity. If a qualified free-roaming horse expert determines as part of such an agreement that the free-roaming horse or herd exceeds the carrying capacity of the land inhabited, as determined using the best available science, the expert, and that expert's employees, contractors and volunteers, may cause control of a free-roaming horse or herd upon the approval of the appropriate landowner through:

                (1) the use of fertility control via immunocontraception or castration;

                (2) humane capture and relocation to an equine rescue or retirement facility, with permission of the facility, having the capacity to accept free-roaming horses that is registered with the board pursuant to Section 77-2-30 NMSA 1978 or an equivalent out-of-state facility that meets the board's facility standards for lifelong sanctuary care or for the purposes of adoption of the free-roaming horse or horses;

                (3) humane capture and relocation to land, with the permission of the landowner, that has the capacity to sustain free-roaming horse herds or family bands; or

                (4) for a horse determined by a veterinarian licensed to practice in New Mexico to suffer from a medical condition that significantly impacts the horse's quality of life and cannot be reasonably treated, humane euthanasia.

          B. A free-roaming horse captured pursuant to this section and relocated to an equine rescue or retirement facility shall be microchipped or freeze branded for individual and ownership identification purposes.

          C. Nothing in this section shall authorize a qualified free-roaming horse expert to engage in herd management activities on federal or tribal land.

          D. Nothing in this section shall affect the federal bureau of land management's or the United States forest service's authority to manage free-roaming horses that are not subject to the federal Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act and found on lands administered by the federal bureau of land management or the United States forest service, including the federal bureau of land management's or the United States forest service's authority to gather, remove and sell free-roaming horses in accordance with applicable law, regulations and policy.

          E. A person shall not slaughter, allow to be slaughtered, export for slaughter or release from a facility or adoptive home into the wild a free-roaming horse. A person who violates this subsection is guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction shall be sentenced in accordance with the provisions of Section 31-19-1 NMSA 1978. Each free-roaming horse that a person slaughters, allows to be slaughtered, exports for slaughter or releases constitutes a separate offense.

          F. As used in this section:

                (1) "adoption" means the taking of custody and ownership of a free-roaming horse by a qualified individual who has demonstrated to the equine rescue or retirement facility in possession of that horse the capacity and intent to provide humane treatment and care of the animal, including proper feeding, sheltering, husbandry, handling and care;

                (2) "carrying capacity" means the number of free-roaming horses that a given amount of land can support long-term while maintaining or improving healthy vegetation, soil, water and free-roaming horse herds inhabiting that land, taking into account human uses and wildlife populations;

                (3) "free-roaming horse" means an unclaimed horse found at large that is not an estray due to lack of evidence of private ownership or domestication and does not include horses subject to the jurisdiction of the federal government pursuant to the federal Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act;

                (4) "humane capture" means to gather or move free-roaming horses to a holding location using baited corrals or other low-stress methods whenever feasible, but does not include use of aircraft or motorized vehicles;

                (5) "humane euthanasia" means to produce a humane death of an animal by standards deemed acceptable by the board of veterinary medicine as set forth in the board's rules; and

                (6) "qualified free-roaming horse expert" means an individual who has been approved by the board."

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