N.M. Stat. § 17-2-7

This is the official text of N.M. Stat. § 17-2-7, part of New Mexico’s Stat — part of the compiled statutory law of New Mexico, published by the state as "Stat." Browse the sections below, each linked to its official government source.

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§ 17-2-7. Unlawful hunting or fishing

Official statutory text

A. Except as permitted by regulations adopted by the state game commission or as otherwise allowed by law, it is unlawful to:

(1) hunt, take, capture, kill or attempt to take, capture or kill, at any time or in any manner, any game animal, game bird or game fish in the state; or

(2) possess, offer for sale, sell, offer to purchase or purchase in the state all or any part of any game animal, game bird or game fish.

B. Notwithstanding any other law, the owner of domestic livestock in this state or his regular employee may hunt, take, capture or kill any cougar or bear which has killed domestic livestock. The owner of livestock or his regular employee who takes action under this provision will report this action to the department of game and fish, who will verify the necessity of the action taken.

C. Violation of this section is a misdemeanor and shall be punished as provided in Section 17-2-10 NMSA 1978 .

D. The provisions of this section shall not be deemed to prohibit the possession of game animals, birds or fish taken legally in any other jurisdiction.

Status: in_force

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.