46th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2003

RELATING TO WILDLIFE; ENACTING THE WILD HORSE PROTECTION ACT; PROVIDING FOR THE PROTECTION OF WILD HORSES; PROVIDING FOR THEIR ADOPTION UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES; PROVIDING A CRIMINAL PENALTY; MAKING AN APPROPRIATION.

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

Section 1. [NEW MATERIAL] SHORT TITLE.--Sections 1 through 6 of this act may be cited as the "Wild Horse Protection Act".

Section 2. [NEW MATERIAL] DEFINITIONS.--As used in the Wild Horse Protection Act:

A. "commission" means the state game commission;

B. "department" means the department of game and fish; and

C. "wild horse" means a free-roaming and unowned horse. A free-roaming horse shall be presumed to be a "wild horse" if it is not:

(1) branded;

(2) identified by a freeze mark or freeze brand approved by the New Mexico livestock board;

(3) subject to a registration certificate from a recognized breed association; or

(4) an offspring with a mare identified in Paragraphs (1) through (3) of this subsection.

Section 3. [NEW MATERIAL] WILD HORSES--PROTECTION--TAKING OR IMPOUNDING PROHIBITED--PENALTY.--

A. Wild horses shall be protected as a valuable resource of this state. The commission shall promulgate such rules as are necessary to protect wild horses.

B. Except as allowed pursuant to the Wild Horse Protection Act, no person shall take, possess, impound or sell wild horses or parts thereof.

C. A person who violates any provision of the Wild Horse Protection Act or a rule adopted pursuant to that act is guilty of a fourth degree felony and shall be sentenced in accordance with the provisions of Section 31-18-15 NMSA 1978.

Section 4. [NEW MATERIAL] IMPOUNDMENT AUTHORIZED.--

A. A person may impound a wild horse on property the person owns or controls only if the wild horse has damaged or is threatening to damage the person's property. Within twenty-four hours of impounding a wild horse, the person shall notify the department of the impoundment.

B. The New Mexico livestock board, upon receiving notification that a wild horse has been impounded, shall immediately notify the department of the impoundment.

C. Upon receiving notice of an impoundment pursuant to this section, the department shall, as soon as practicable, take possession of the impounded wild horse. If, after taking possession, the department determines that the horse was not a wild horse when impounded, the department shall transfer the horse to the New Mexico livestock board for sale or other disposal pursuant to The Livestock Code.

Section 5. [NEW MATERIAL] ADOPTION PROGRAM--DISPOSITION OF FEES.--

A. The commission shall establish an adoption program for wild horses impounded and possessed by the department pursuant to the Wild Horse Protection Act. The program:

(1) shall include procedures to assure the department that the adoptive owner intends and has the facilities to care for the horse in an humane manner and will not abuse or destroy the horse;

(2) shall include provisions for a fee schedule to charge adoptive owners. Fees received from the adoptive owners shall be first applied by the department to compensate the owner or lessee of the land for any damage caused by the wild horse and next to the department to be retained by it as reimbursement for costs incurred in the impoundment and adoption proceedings;

(3) may include provisions for contracting with a public or private entity to administer the adoption program on behalf of the department; and

(4) may be implemented in coordination with the federal wild horse adoption program administered pursuant to the federal Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.

B. If the department determines that a wild horse is old, sick, lame or otherwise unadoptable, the department may destroy the horse in the most humane manner possible.

Section 6. [NEW MATERIAL] COORDINATION WITH FEDERAL AND STATE AGENCIES.--

A. Pursuant to the Joint Powers Agreements Act, the department may enter into agreements with agencies of the federal government or with the New Mexico livestock board for the purpose of implementing the Wild Horse Protection Act.

B. The Wild Horse Protection Act does not apply to horses under the jurisdiction of the federal government pursuant to the provisions of the federal Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act.

Section 7. Section 17-2-7.2 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1997, Chapter 224, Section 3) is amended to read:

"17-2-7.2. LANDOWNER TAKING--CONDITIONS--DEPARTMENT

RESPONSIBILITIES.--

A. A landowner or lessee, or employee of either, may take or kill an animal on private land, in which they have an ownership or leasehold interest, including game animals and other quadrupeds, except wild horses subject to the Wild Horses Protection Act, game birds and fowl, that presents an immediate threat to human life or an immediate threat of damage to property, including crops; provided, however, that the taking or killing is reported to the department [of game and fish] within twenty-four hours and before the removal of the carcass of the animal killed, in accordance with regulations adopted by the commission.

B. A landowner or lessee, or employee of either, may take or kill animals on private land, in which they have an ownership or leasehold interest, including game animals and other quadrupeds, except wild horses subject to the Wild Horse Protection Act, game birds and fowl, that present a threat to human life or damage to property, including crops, according to regulations adopted by the commission. The regulations shall:

(1) provide a method for filing a complaint to the department by the landowner or lessee, or employee of either of them, of the existence of a depredation problem;

(2) provide for various departmental interventions, depending upon the type of animal and depredation;

(3) require the department to offer at least three different interventions, if practical;

(4) require the department to respond to the initial and any subsequent complaints within ten days with an intervention response to the complaint and to carry out the intervention, if agreed upon between the department and the landowner, within five days of that agreement;

(5) permit the landowner or lessee to reject for good cause the interventions offered by the department;

(6) require a landowner or lessee to demonstrate that the property depredation is greater in value than the value of any wildlife-related income or fee collected by the landowner or lessee for permission to take or kill an animal of the same species on the private property or portion of the private property identified in the complaint as the location where the depredation occurred; and

(7) permit the landowner, lessee or employee, when interventions by the department have not been successful and after one year from the date of the filing of the initial complaint, to kill or take an animal believed responsible for property depredation.

C. For purposes of this section:

(1) "commission" means the state game commission;

(2) "department" means the department of game and fish; and

(3) "intervention" means a solution proposed by the department to eliminate the depredation."

Section 8. Section 77-2-1.1 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1993, Chapter 248, Section 2, as amended by Laws 2001, Chapter 8, Section 2 and also by Laws 2001, Chapter 341, Section 2) 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 horses, asses, mules, cattle, sheep, goats, swine, bison, poultry, ostriches, emus, rheas, camelids and farmed cervidae upon any land in New Mexico; provided that for the purposes of Chapter 77, Article 9 NMSA 1978, "animals" or "livestock" have the meaning defined in that article. "Animals" or "livestock" does not include canine or feline animals or wild horses subject to the Wild Horse Protection Act. For the purpose of the rules governing meat inspection, wild animals, poultry and birds used for human consumption shall also be included within the meaning of "animals" or "livestock";

B. "bill of sale" means an instrument in substantially the form specified in The Livestock Code by which the owner or his 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] genus 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 United States department of agriculture, packers and stockyards administration 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. "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;

O. "inspector" means a livestock or brand inspector;

P. "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;

Q. "mark" means an ear tag or ownership mark that is not a brand;

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

S. "mule" means a hybrid resulting from the cross of a horse and an ass; and

T. "person" means an individual, firm, partnership, association, corporation or similar legal entity."

Section 9. Section 77-9-1.1 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1999, Chapter 282, Section 46) is amended to read:

"77-9-1.1. DEFINITION.--As used in Chapter 77, Article 9 NMSA 1978, "livestock" means horses, asses, mules, cattle or bison but does not include wild horses subject to the Wild Horse Protection Act."