SENATE BILL 73

52nd legislature - STATE OF NEW MEXICO - first session, 2015

INTRODUCED BY

William P. Soules

AN ACT

RELATING TO GAME AND FISH; CLARIFYING CONDITIONS FOR LANDOWNER TAKING OR KILLING ANIMALS ON PRIVATE LAND.

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 the 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 presents an immediate threat to human life or an immediate threat of damage to property, not including damage to crops or pastures by grazing; 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] of private land in which [they have] the landowner or lessee has an ownership or leasehold interest shall notify the department regarding animals, 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] or pastures in accordance with regulations adopted by the commission.

          C. The regulations promulgated by the commission pursuant to Subsections A and B of this section 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.] D. 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."

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