HOUSE BILL 565

46th legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - second session, 2004

INTRODUCED BY

James G. Taylor

AN ACT

RELATING TO GAME AND FISH; AMENDING PROCEDURES FOR LANDOWNER TAKING OF ANIMALS ON PRIVATE LAND; DECLARING AN EMERGENCY.

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

     Section 1. 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, 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 is processed by the landowner, lessee or employee in accordance with regulations adopted by the commission to minimize waste.

          B. A landowner or lessee, or employee of either, with written advance consent from the landowner, may take or kill animals on private land, in which [they have] the landowner or lessee has an ownership or leasehold interest, including game animals and other quadrupeds, game birds and fowl, that present a threat [to human life or] of 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, one of which shall be a landowner-agreed permanent intervention;

                (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 or lessee, within five days of that agreement if other than a permanent intervention;

                (5) permit the landowner or lessee to reject for good cause, in accordance with regulations adopted by the commission, the interventions offered by the department;

                (6) require a landowner or lessee to demonstrate, in accordance with regulations adopted by the commission, that the property depredation complained of is or will be 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 on the private property or portion of the private property identified in the complaint as the location where the depredation occurred; provided that the landowner has not rejected a permanent intervention; and

                (8) require the landowner or lessee, or employee of either, to report a taking or killing to the department within twenty-four hours of the killing or taking and to process the carcass of the animal killed in accordance with regulations adopted by the commission to minimize waste.

          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 mitigate or eliminate the depredation."

     Section 2. EMERGENCY.--It is necessary for the public peace, health and safety that this act take effect immediately.

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