SB 112

Under current law, a person is prohibited from possessing the green skin of any

fur-bearing animal, except beaver, from the fifth day after the beginning of the

closed season for that animal until the end of that closed season. This bill exempts

from this prohibition the possession of the green skin of a lawfully killed fur-bearing

animal that carries a registration tag issued by the Department of Natural

Resources (DNR) or for which there is an open season without any bag or possession

limits. The bill also exempts from the prohibition a landowner or occupant who

possesses the greenskin of certain fur-bearing animals that are trapped on that

land. Also, under the bill, the prohibition and the exemption apply to beaver in the

same manner that they apply to other fur-bearing animals.

Under current law, with limited exceptions, no person may sell, buy, barter, or

trade a deer (except farm-raised deer), bear, elk, squirrel, the carcass of one of those

wild animals, at any time, or any other wild animal, or its carcass, during the closed

season for that wild animal. The tail and skin of a squirrel are currently exempt from

this prohibition. This bill expands the exemption by including the skull and claws

of a squirrel. Also, the bill allows a person to sell, purchase, barter, or trade a

fur-bearing animal that has a valid registration tag attached by DNR or a wild

animal, or its carcass, for which there is an open season and for which there is no bag

or possession limit. The bill further allows the sale, purchase, barter, and trade of

liquid scent made from the carcass of a lawfully taken wild animal, except from a

bear's gallbladder. Finally, the bill allows the sale, purchase, barter, and trade of

rabbits, or their parts, if they are lawfully taken by landowners on their own property

or as part of DNR's program for eliminating nuisance wildlife.

Under current law, each trap used by a licensed trapper must have a metal tag

that has the name and address of the owner of the trap. The bill changes this

requirement so that the name and address must be that of the operator of the trap.

Under the bill, the operator of a trap may use, in lieu of the name and address, a

customer identification number issued by DNR to the operator under DNR's

automated system for issuing trapping licenses and other fishing and hunting

approvals.