A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT to modify the procedure for obtaining a depredation permit for deer and to impose a duty to avoid wanton waste on persons taking Deer due to crop depredation.
The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:
SECTION 1.  G.S. 113‑274 reads as rewritten:
"§ 113‑274.  Permits.
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(c)	The Wildlife Resources Commission may issue the following permits:
(1)	Repealed by Session Laws 1979, c. 830, s. 1.
(1a)	Depredation Permit. – Authorizes the taking, destruction, transfer, removal, transplanting, or driving away of undesirable, harmful, predatory, excess, or surplus wildlife or wildlife resources. Livestock or poultry owners shall be issued a depredation permit for coyotes upon request. The permit must state the manner of taking and the disposition of wildlife or wildlife resources authorized or required and the time for which the permit is valid, plus other restrictions that may be administratively imposed in accordance with rules of the Wildlife Resources Commission. No license is needed for a property owner or a lessee who leases property for purposes of agriculture, as defined in G.S. 106‑581.1, to hunt upon the property, but daily and season bag limits shall apply. A depredation permit issued under the procedures set forth in this subdivision is required for taking more than the daily or season bag limits of wildlife. Where a property owner or lessee of property requests a depredation permit for deer, staff from the Wildlife Resources Commission shall study the deer population on the property and make an estimate of the number of deer that may reasonably be taken from the property as a remedy for depredation. The permit shall include that number as the taking limit for that property, and the limit shall apply to the owner and any lessee of the property. Any owner or lessee who takes wildlife upon the property shall notify the Wildlife Resources Commission within 24 hours utilizing an electronic mail or Internet‑based reporting process. The Wildlife Resources Commission may regulate the manner of taking and the disposition of wildlife taken without permit or license, including wildlife killed accidentally by motor vehicle or in any other manner, and shall impose a duty to avoid wanton waste on any owner or lessee of land with respect to deer taken on their property. For purposes of this subdivision, "wanton waste" shall mean to kill or cripple a deer without making a reasonable effort to retrieve and properly dispose of it, and to "properly dispose" of a deer shall include donations of venison to food banks and other nonprofit organizations but shall not include sales.
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SECTION 2.  This act becomes effective October 1, 2019. Notwithstanding G.S. 150B‑21.1, the Commission may adopt temporary rules to implement the provisions of this act.