Posted March 12, 2014
The Kentucky legislature is considering a bill that
would give landowners or their designees the authority to kill or trap any
wildlife causing damage to their crops or personal property, according to an
article by Kentucky Public Radio available here.
The bill, HB 448, was
recently approved by the House Agriculture and Small Business Committee. The bill also requires on-site disposal and
allows the state Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources to promulgate
regulations.
Jeff Harper, with the Kentucky Farm Bureau, said, “The
one thing that we wanted to be very careful of was not to do anything to harm
the sport of hunting or anything to harm wildlife, but at the same time, [the
animals] were causing crop loss.”
State Division of Wildlife Director Karen Alexy Waldrop
says management of the female deer population is a long term way to help remedy
crop loss problems. She says “her agency
wants to work with landowners and show them how to decrease the population on
their properties.”
For more information on landowner liability, please
visit the National Agricultural Law Center’s website here.
