Back to Wild Friends homepageWild Friends
Enjoy Legislative Success
With Anti-Poaching Bill
In the 1997 legislative season, 200 New Mexico middle and high school students were able to accomplish what many professional lobbyists would envy: the passage of their bill through both houses of the legislature.
For their 1997 legislative project, the students that make up the Wild Friends environmental education program drafted and testified on behalf of their own anti-poaching legislation. The result: House Bill 249, which established mandatory civil penalties and increased criminal penalties for repeat wildlife poachers in New Mexico. Previously, New Mexico's criminal and civil penalties for poaching ranked among the lowest in the region. After four students testified before the Interim Courts, Corrections and Criminal Justice Committee about poaching in 1996, they were invited to submit a draft bill to that committee, which eventually became HB 249.
"When a person rips off a convenience store with a gun, they go to jail," Wild Friends member and middle school student Steve Silberer said. "But when someone slaughters game illegally, he gets a fine and maybe loses his hunting privileges for a few years. Is this right?"
New Mexico lawmakers evidently agreed with Steve. House Bill 249 passed the House by a vote of 63-1, the Senate by a vote of 16-10, and was signed into law by Governor Gary Johnson.
So far, Wild Friends have been recognized for their achievement by the U.S. Department of the Interior Bureau of Reclamation and have been featured in the summer issue of People, Land & Water, a national newsletter, and the High Country News, a publication that covers Western environmental issues.
Wild Friends is a program of the Institute of Public Law's Center for Wildlife Law. For more information, contact Carolyn Byers at (505) 277-5089.
Text of the Bill
House Bill 249 (HB 249)
43rd legislature - State of New Mexico - first session, 1997
AN ACT RELATING TO GAME AND FISH; INCREASING CRIMINAL AND CIVIL PENALTIES FOR VIOLATION OF GAME AND FISH LAWS AND REGULATIONS
Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of New Mexico
§17-2-10. VIOLATION OF GAME AND FISH LAWS OR REGULATIONS -- PENALTIES.
A person convicted a second time under Chapter 17 or its
regulations shall may be sentenced to
imprisonment in the county jail for not more than 364 days. Also,
the person must pay a fine of double the amount specified
in Subsection A.
A person convicted a third or subsequent time under Chapter 17
or its regulations shall may be sentenced
to imprisonment in the county jail for not less than 90 days nor
more than 364 days. Also, the person must pay a fine of triple
the amount specified in Subsection A.
§17-2-26. CIVIL LIABILITY.
The department of game and fish may bring a civil action against a person who unlawfully wounds, kills or possesses any game quadruped, bird or fish, or part, and recover minimum damages for each: (Amounts are based on the current market value of each.)
|
|