A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to authorize the hunting of coyotes in controlled hunting preserves and to make it unlawful to import live coyotes into this state.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 113‑273(g) reads as rewritten:
"(g)	Controlled Hunting Preserve Operator License. – The Wildlife Resources Commission is authorized by rule to set standards for and to license the operation of controlled hunting preserves operated by private persons. Controlled hunting preserves are of two types: one is an area marked with appropriate signs along the outside boundaries on which only domestically raised game birds other than wild turkeys are taken; the other is an area enclosed with a dog‑proof fence on which foxes and coyotes may be hunted with dogs only. A controlled fox and coyote hunting preserve operated for private use may be of any size; a controlled hunting preserve operated for commercial purposes shall be an area of not less than 500 acres or of such size as set by regulation of the Wildlife Resources Commission, which shall take into account differences in terrain and topography, as well as the welfare of the  wildlife.
Operators of controlled fox hunting preserves may purchase live foxes and coyotes from licensed trappers who live‑trap foxes and coyotes during any open season for trapping them and may, at any time, take live foxes from their preserves for sale to other licensed operators. The controlled hunting preserve operator license may be purchased for a fee of fifty dollars ($50.00), and is an annual license issued beginning August 1 each year running until the following July 1."
SECTION 2.  G.S. 113‑294 is amended by adding a new subsection to read:
"(o)	Any person who willfully transports or attempts to transport live coyotes (Cania latrans) into this State for any purpose is guilty of a Class 1 misdemeanor, and upon conviction the Wildlife Resources Commission shall suspend any controlled hunting preserve operator license issued to that person for two years."
SECTION 3.  Section 2 of this act becomes effective October 1, 2003, and applies to acts committed on or after that date. The remainder of this act becomes effective October 1, 2003.