Substitute Senate Bill No. 412
Substitute Senate Bill No. 412
PUBLIC ACT NO. 98-199
AN ACT CONCERNING CONTROL OF NUISANCE WILDLIFE.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of
Representatives in General Assembly convened:
Section 1. Section 26-47 of the general
statutes, as amended by public act 97-255, is
repealed and the following is substituted in lieu
thereof:
(a) When it is shown to the satisfaction of
the commissioner that wildlife is causing
unreasonable damage to agricultural crops during
the night and it is found by the commissioner that
control of such damage by wildlife is
impracticable during the daylight hours, the
commissioner may issue permits for the taking of
such wildlife as he deems necessary to control
such damage by such method as he determines,
including the use of lights, during the period
between sunset and sunrise, upon written
application of the owner or lessee of record of
the land on which such crops are grown. Such
permits may be issued to any qualified person
designated by such landowner or lessee. The person
to whom such permit is issued shall be held
responsible for complying with the conditions
under which such permit is issued. The provisions
of this section shall not apply to deer.
(b) (1) No person shall engage in the business
of controlling nuisance wildlife, other than rats
or mice, without obtaining a license from the
commissioner. Such license shall expire on the
last day of December next succeeding its issuance.
The fee for such license shall be fifty dollars.
The controlling of nuisance wildlife at the
direction of the commissioner shall not constitute
engaging in the business of controlling nuisance
wildlife for the purposes of this section. No
person shall be licensed under this subsection
unless he provides evidence, satisfactory to the
commissioner, that he has completed training which
included instruction in site evaluation, methods
of NONLETHAL AND approved lethal resolution of
common nuisance wildlife problems, techniques to
prevent reoccurrence of such problems and humane
capture, handling and euthanasia of nuisance
wildlife AND INSTRUCTION IN METHODS OF NONLETHAL
RESOLUTION OF COMMON NUISANCE WILDLIFE PROBLEMS,
INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, TRAINING REGARDING
FRIGHTENING DEVICES, REPELLANTS, ONE-WAY DOOR
EXCLUSION AND OTHER EXCLUSION METHODS, HABITAT
MODIFICATION AND LIVE-TRAPPING AND RELEASING AND
OTHER METHODS AS THE COMMISSIONER MAY DEEM
APPROPRIATE. The commissioner shall adopt
regulations in accordance with the provisions of
chapter 54 which (A) define the scope and methods
for controlling nuisance wildlife provided such
regulations shall incorporate the recommendations
of the 1993 report of the American Veterinary
Medical Association panel on euthanasia and
further provided such regulations may provide for
the use of specific alternatives to such
recommendations only in specified circumstances
where use of a method of killing approved by such
association would involve an imminent threat to
human health or safety and only if such
alternatives are designed to kill the animal as
quickly and painlessly as practicable while
protecting human health and safety, and (B)
establish criteria and procedures for issuance of
a license.
(2) Except as otherwise provided in
regulations adopted under this section, no person
licensed under this subsection may kill any animal
by any method which does not conform to the
recommendations of the 1993 report of the American
Veterinary Medical Association panel on
euthanasia. No person may advertise any services
relating to humane capture or relocation of
wildlife unless all methods employed in such
services conform to such regulations.
(3) Any person licensed under this subsection
shall provide [a prospective client] ALL CLIENTS
with a written statement APPROVED BY THE
COMMISSIONER regarding approved lethal AND
NONLETHAL options, AS PROVIDED IN THIS SUBSECTION,
WHICH ARE available to the client for resolution
of [the] COMMON nuisance [problem prior to
providing nuisance wildlife control services]
PROBLEMS. IF A WRITTEN STATEMENT CANNOT BE
DELIVERED TO THE CLIENT PRIOR TO SERVICES BEING
RENDERED, THE LICENSEE SHALL LEAVE THE STATEMENT
AT THE JOB SITE OR OTHER LOCATION ARRANGED WITH
THE CLIENT.
(4) On or before February first of each year,
each person licensed under this subsection shall
submit a report to the commissioner which
specifies the means utilized in each case of
nuisance wildlife control service provided in the
preceding calendar year including any method used
in those cases where an animal was killed. Any
information included in such report which
identifies a client of such person or the client's
street address may be released by the commissioner
only pursuant to an investigation related to
enforcement of this section.
(c) Any person who violates any provision of
this section, or any condition under which a
permit or license is issued, shall be fined not
less than twenty-five dollars nor more than two
hundred dollars or be imprisoned not more than
sixty days or be both fined and imprisoned; and
any permit or license issued to such person, and
all other such permits or licenses issued to any
other person for such property, shall be revoked
by the commissioner and the right to obtain such
permit or license shall remain suspended for such
period of time as the commissioner determines.
(d) Any permit or license issued under this
section shall not authorize the taking of deer.
Sec. 2. This act shall take effect July 1,
1998.
Approved June 8, 1998