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, 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, 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.
History: Laws 1997, ch. 224, § 3.
ANNOTATIONSRelation to cruelty to animal prohibitions. — Even if the legislature had intended to protect wild animals in Section 30-18-1 NMSA 1978, the legislature, having dealt with the subject of the hunting of game animals more particularly in the game and fish laws, intended to create an exception from the cruelty-to-animals statute for hunting and fishing activity contemplated by game and fish laws. State v. Cleve, 1999-NMSC-017, 127 N.M. 240, 980 P.2d 23.