AB 548

Under current law, the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is authorized

to issue hunting, fishing, and trapping licenses, permits, tags, and other approvals

(approvals) and to otherwise establish and maintain conditions regulating hunting,

fishing, and trapping. Generally, current law requires a person to have a valid

approval to hunt a deer and to take possession of the deer carcass.

Current law authorizes a person who accidentally kills a deer while operating

a motor vehicle on a highway to take possession of the deer carcass and to remove

it from the scene of the accident if the person has the carcass tagged by a law

enforcement officer or gives the law enforcement officer certain identifying

information and has the carcass tagged at a later time as instructed by the law

enforcement officer. Current law prohibits DNR from charging a fee to issue a tag

for this purpose. Under this bill, the law regulating the possession of the carcass of

a deer killed by a vehicle also applies to bear and wild turkey.

This bill allows a person who accidentally kills certain other small game

animals while operating a motor vehicle on a highway to also take possession of the

carcass of that small game animal. Under the bill, the operator of the motor vehicle

may take possession of the carcass of the small game animal, if the animal is not a

fisher, otter, or bobcat, if the motor vehicle operator possesses an approval that

authorizes the hunting or trapping of the kind of animal killed, and if the animal is

killed during the open season for that animal. If the operator of the motor vehicle

does not want to take possession of the carcass, any other person may take possession

of the carcass if that person possesses an approval that authorizes the hunting or

trapping of the kind of animal killed by the motor vehicle, and if the animal was killed

during the open season for that animal. Unlike current law authorizing the

possession of the carcass of a deer killed by a vehicle, a person who is authorized

under this bill to take possession of a small game animal killed by a vehicle need not

have the animal tagged by a law enforcement officer.