Senate Bill No. 614
(By Senators Sprouse, Caldwell and Mitchell)
____________
[Introduced March 26, 2001; referred to the Committee on Natural
Resources.]
____________
A BILL to amend article eight, chapter sixty-one of the code of
West Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as
amended, by adding thereto a new section, designated section
nineteen-b, relating to unlawful trapping of domestic animals;
and criminal penalties.
Be it enacted by the Legislature of West Virginia:
That article eight, chapter sixty-one of the code of West
Virginia, one thousand nine hundred thirty-one, as amended, be
amended by adding thereto a new section, designated section
nineteen-b, to read as follows:
ARTICLE 8. CRIMES AGAINST CHASTITY, MORALITY AND DECENCY.
§61-8-19b. Trapping domestic animals prohibited; penalties.
(a) Any person who injures or kills a domestic animal by intentionally trapping or ensnaring or attempting to trap or
ensnare the animal is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction
thereof, shall be fined not less than one hundred dollars nor more
than one thousand dollars or confined in a county or regional jail
for not more than one year, or both fined and imprisoned.
Injuring
or killing a domestic animal in a residential area or in the
proximity of a dwelling by use of a trap or device commonly used
for trapping fur-bearing wild animals establishes a rebuttable
presumption of a violation of this section.
NOTE:
The purpose of this bill is to
create a criminal
offense of injuring or killing a house pet or other domestic animal
by the use of a trap.
This section is new; therefore, strike-throughs and
underscoring have been omitted.