Any farmed deer or cervid which escapes from a licensed deer farm shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the Department of Natural Resources and may be treated as an escaped wild animal which is subject to the provisions of Chapter 5 of Title 27, except that, while such animal is roaming freely outside the enclosure of any licensed deer farm, the owner of such farmed deer or cervid shall have 48 hours from the time the escape is detected to recapture such animal and return it to the licensed deer farm. As a condition for maintaining a deer-farming license, it shall be the duty of the owner or operator of a licensed deer farm to notify the Department of Natural Resources immediately upon discovery of the escape of a farmed deer. When such notice has been given, no legal hunter shall be held liable for killing or wounding an escaped deer.
(Code 1981, §4-4-174, enacted by Ga. L. 1997, p. 1395, § 2.)