A. It is unlawful for any person:

1. (1) who hunts or fishes and takes any game mammal designated in Paragraphs (2), (3) or (4) of Subsection A of Section 17-2-3 NMSA 1978, any game bird or any game fish to fail to transport the edible portions of the meat obtained to the person's home for human consumption or to provide for the human consumption thereof under any commission regulations pertaining to exportation, transportation and donation of game;
2. (2) who wounds or may have wounded any game mammal designated in Paragraphs (2), (3) or (4) of Subsection A of Section 17-2-3 NMSA 1978 to fail to go to the place where the mammal sustained or may have sustained the wound and make a reasonable attempt to track the mammal and reduce it to possession; or

3. (3) to take or kill a bighorn sheep, ibex, oryx, Barbary sheep, elk, deer or pronghorn antelope outside of the legal season or without a valid license, which taking or killing results in waste of the animal. Waste of the animal consists of removing from the animal only the head, antlers or horns or abandoning any of the four quarters, backstraps or tenderloins of the carcass. A violation of the provisions of this paragraph is intended to be separate from and cumulative to any other violation of Chapter 17 NMSA 1978.

   B. Violation of Paragraph (3) of Subsection A of this section is a fourth degree felony pursuant to Section 31-18-15 NMSA 1978, and violation of Paragraph (1) or (2) of Subsection A of this section is a misdemeanor pursuant to Section 17-2-10 NMSA 1978.

History: 1953 Comp., § 53-2-7.1, enacted by Laws 1977, ch. 70, § 1; 2017, ch. 38, § 1.

ANNOTATIONS

The 2017 amendment, effective June 16, 2017, made it a fourth degree felony to wastefully take or kill certain big game, defined "waste of the animal", and made it a misdemeanor to hunt or fish certain game animals and fail to provide for its consumption or to wound a game mammal and fail to make a reasonable attempt to track the mammal; in the catchline, added "Unlawful taking of big game"; designated the previously undesignated introductory clause as Subsection A and redesignated former Subsections A and B as Paragraphs A(1) and A(2), respectively; and added a new Subsection B.