NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1977 SESSION

 

 

CHAPTER 695

HOUSE BILL 671

 

 

AN ACT TO REGULATE THE SETTING OF STEEL TRAPS AND CONNIBEAR TRAPS IN CERTAIN COUNTIES.

 

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

 

Section 1.  It shall be unlawful in Carteret, Onslow and Wayne Counties for any person, firm or corporation to set steel traps or connibear traps of any type or take any animal caught in any steel trap or connibear trap on any lands, except as hereinafter provided.

Sec. 2. It shall be lawful for any person, firm or corporation to set or possess steel traps and connibear traps and take animals therefrom provided not otherwise prohibited by law, on his own land. It shall be lawful for any person, firm or corporation to set or possess steel traps and connibear traps and take animals on leased or sublet lands in Carteret, Onslow and Wayne Counties provided:

(a)       There is a written lease between the owner or lessor of lands and his lessee, which lease shall contain in clear terms permission to the lessee to trap on the lands described in said lease.

(b)       Any person not specifically named in said lease as the grantee of the right to trap shall not be deemed to have authority to trap on any lands described in said lease.

Sec. 3. It is the intent and purpose of this act to prevent any person, firm or corporation from setting or using steel traps and connibear traps of any type on lands in Carteret, Onslow and Wayne Counties unless used on lands owned by the trapper or unless used on lands leased as hereinabove provided.

Sec. 4. Violation of this act shall be a misdemeanor punishable by a fine of not less than fifty dollars ($50.00) or more than two hundred dollars ($200.00), or by imprisonment of not more than 30 days, or by both fine and imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.

Sec. 5. This act shall be enforced by North Carolina Wildlife Protectors and all other law enforcement officers.

Sec. 6. It shall be lawful in Carteret, Onslow and Wayne Counties for any person, firm or corporation to set or possess humane box-type traps and take animals therefrom, provided not otherwise prohibited by law.

Sec. 7.  Nothing in this act shall prohibit the use of steel or metal jaw traps by county or State public health officials or their designated agents in order to control the spread of disease when the use of such steel or metal jaw traps has been declared necessary by the Department of Human Resources.

Sec. 8. This act shall become effective upon ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 23rd day of June, 1977.