Section 4181.5 Of Article 2. Depredators From California Fish And Game Code >> Division 4. >> Part 3. >> Chapter 3. >> Article 2.
4181.5
. (a) Any owner or tenant of land or property that is being
damaged or destroyed or is in immediate danger of being damaged or
destroyed by deer may apply to the department for a permit to kill
those deer. The department, upon satisfactory evidence of that damage
or destruction, actual or immediately threatened, shall issue a
revocable permit for the taking and disposition of those deer for a
designated period not to exceed 60 days under regulations promulgated
by the commission.
(b) The regulations of the commission shall include provisions
concerning the type of weapons to be used to kill the deer. The
weapons shall be those as will ensure humane killing, but the
regulations of the commission shall provide for the use of a
sufficient variety of weapons to permit the designation of particular
types to be used in any particular locality commensurate with the
need to protect persons and property. Firearms using .22-caliber
rimfire cartridges may be used only when authorized by the director
or his designee. No pistols shall be used. The caliber and type of
weapon to be used by each permittee shall be specified in each permit
by the issuing officer who shall take into consideration the
location of the area, the necessity for clean kills, the safety
factor, local firearms ordinances, and other factors that apply.
Rifle ammunition used shall have expanding bullets; shotgun
ammunition shall have only single slugs, or, if authorized by the
department, 0 or 00 buckshot.
(c) The department shall issue tags similar to those provided for
in Section 4331 at the same time the permit is issued. A permittee
under this section shall carry the tags while hunting deer, and upon
the killing of any deer, shall immediately fill out both parts of the
tag and punch out clearly the date of the kill. One part of the tag
shall be immediately attached to the antlers of antlered deer or to
the ear of any other deer and kept attached until 10 days after the
permit has expired. The other part of the tag shall be immediately
sent to the department after it has been countersigned by any person
authorized by Section 4341.
(d) A permit issued pursuant to this section may be renewed only
after a finding by the department that further damage has occurred or
will occur unless that permit is renewed. A person seeking renewal
of the permit shall account for all prior tags issued at the time he
or she received any prior permits, and if any tags are unused, he or
she shall show either that any deer killed could not reasonably be
tagged or why the killing was not accomplished within the allotted
time and why that killing would be accomplished under a new time
period.