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Tex. Parks and Wildlife Code § 62.011

This is the official text of Tex. Parks and Wildlife Code § 62.011, part of Texas’s Parks and Wildlife Code — governs state parks, hunting, and fishing.

Not legal advice. This page reproduces the official text of a government statute for reference only. Laws change, and how a statute applies depends on your specific facts. For advice about your situation, consult a licensed attorney in your state.

§ 62.011. RETRIEVAL AND WASTE OF GAME.

Official statutory text

(a) Except as provided by Subsection (c), it is an offense if a person while hunting kills or wounds a game bird or game animal and intentionally or knowingly fails to make a reasonable effort to retrieve the animal or bird and include it in the person's daily or seasonal bag limit.

(b) Except as provided by Subsection (c), it is an offense if a person intentionally takes or possesses a game bird, game animal, or fish and intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence fails to keep the edible portions of the bird, animal, or fish in an edible condition.

(c) It is an offense if a person while hunting kills or wounds a desert bighorn sheep, pronghorn antelope, mule deer, or white-tailed deer in violation of Section 61.022, 62.003, 62.0031, 62.004, or 62.005 and intentionally or knowingly fails to make a reasonable effort to retrieve the animal or intentionally, knowingly, recklessly, or with criminal negligence fails to keep the edible parts of the animal in an edible condition.

(d) In this section:

(1) "Edible condition" means fit for human consumption. The term does not include any portion of a game bird, game animal, or fish that is:

(A) bruised by bullet, shot, or arrow, or otherwise destroyed as a result of harvest;

(B) decayed or rotting; or

(C) obviously infected or diseased.

(2) "Edible parts" means the meaty portions of a carcass that are retained for consumption after quartering as defined in Section 42.001(8).

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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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.