Texas Canned Hunting Statutes and Regulations

No Ban: Mammals permitted.

Statute

Texas law specifies that no person "may sell, offer for sale, purchase, offer to purchase, or possess after purchase a wild bird, game bird, or game animal, dead or alive, or part of the bird or animals," T.C.A. at §62.021(a), except if such activities are conducted "under authority of a license or permit issued under this code." Id. at §62.021(c)(1).

"Game animals" include "mule deer, white-tailed deer, pronghorn antelope, desert bighorn sheep..." Id. at §63.001.

It is unlawful, however, to kill or attempt to injure, or to facilitate the killing of "a dangerous wild animals that is: (A) in captivity in this state; or (B) released from captivity in this state for the purpose of being killed." Id. at §62.102(1)(A-B) and §62.103(1).

A "dangerous wild animal" means a lion, tiger, leopard, cheetah, hyena, bear, elephant, wolf, or rhinoceros and includes any species, subspecies, or hybrid of any of those animals." Id. at §62.101(2). The term "captivity," as used in this part, means "the state of being held under control or kept caged or penned."

Texas agricultural law defines "exotic livestock" to mean "grass-eating or plant-eating, singlehooved or cloven-hooved mammals that are not indigenous to this state and are known as ungulates, including mammals that are not indigenous to this state and are known as ungulates, including animals from the swine, horse, tapir, rhinoceros, elephant, deer, and antelope families." Id. at §161.001(a)(4) (Agriculture).

It is illegal to hunt exotic livestock on the land of another "without the express consent of the owner of the land to hunt for exotic animals." Id. at §62.015(c)(Parks and Wildlife).

A license is required for a person who "manages a hunting cooperative" or for an individual who "holds a hunting lease license." Id. at §43.041(3)(A-B).

A "hunting cooperative" means "a cooperative enterprise in which participating landowners pool their acreage and lease it for hunting purposes under the authority of a hunting lease license..." Id. at §43.041(1).

A "hunting lease" means "the aggregate amount of land owned by one individual, partnership, firm, or corporation or the aggregate amount of land in a hunting cooperative in a county and leased for hunting purposes." Id. at §43.041(2).

Finally, "the owner of a tract of land included in a wildlife management association area...may apply for a wildlife management association area hunting lease license for that tract of land." Id. at §43.0432.

A representative from the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department indicated that the relevant statutes largely dictated the standards under which shooting preserve operations are permitted in Texas. The only relevant regulations pertain to the cost of the licenses for the hunting cooperative, hunting leases, and for wildlife management associations. 31 T.A.C. §53.4 et seq.

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