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HOUSE BILL 284
57
TH LEGISLATURE
-
STATE
OF
NEW
MEXICO
-
FIRST SESSION
,
2025
INTRODUCED BY
Matthew McQueen and Pat Woods
AN ACT
RELATING TO ANIMALS; AMENDING DEFINITIONS IN THE LIVESTOCK
CODE; ALLOWING FERTILITY CONTROL, RELOCATION AND ADOPTION OF
FREE-ROAMING HORSES UNDER CERTAIN CIRCUMSTANCES; ALLOWING A
FREE-ROAMING HORSE EXPERT TO CONTROL THE POPULATION OF FREE-
ROAMING HORSES ON CERTAIN LAND THROUGH CERTAIN METHODS;
REQUIRING THE NEW MEXICO LIVESTOCK BOARD TO APPROVE THE
QUALIFICATIONS OF A FREE-ROAMING HORSE EXPERT; ALLOWING THE NEW
MEXICO LIVESTOCK BOARD TO MAKE RULES REGARDING THE APPROVAL OF
THE QUALIFICATIONS OF A FREE-ROAMING HORSE EXPERT; PROHIBITING
THE SLAUGHTER OR EXPORT FOR SLAUGHTER OF FREE-ROAMING HORSES;
PROVIDING A PENALTY.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO:
SECTION 1. Section 77-2-1.1 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 1993,
Chapter 248, Section 2, as amended) is amended to read:
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"77-2-1.1. DEFINITIONS.--As used in The Livestock Code:
A. "animals" or "livestock" means all domestic or
domesticated animals that are used or raised on a farm or
ranch, including the carcasses thereof, and exotic animals in
captivity and includes equines, cattle, sheep, goats, swine,
bison, poultry, ostriches, emus, rheas, camelids and farmed
cervidae upon any land in New Mexico. "Animals" or "livestock"
does not include canine or feline animals;
B. "bill of sale" means an instrument in
substantially the form specified in The Livestock Code by which
the owner or the owner's authorized agent transfers to the
buyer the title to animals described in the bill of sale;
C. "bison" or "buffalo" means a bovine animal of
the species bison;
D. "board" means the New Mexico livestock board;
E. "bond" means cash or an insurance agreement from
a New Mexico licensed surety or insurance corporation pledging
surety for financial loss caused to another, including
certificate of deposit, letter of credit or other surety as may
be approved by the grain inspection, packers and stockyards
administration of the United States department of agriculture
or the board;
F. "brand" means a symbol or device in a form
approved by and recorded with the board as may be sufficient to
readily distinguish livestock should they become intermixed
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with other livestock;
G. "brand inspector" means an inspector who is not
certified as a peace officer;
H. "carcasses" means dead or dressed bodies of
livestock or parts thereof;
I. "cattle" means animals of the genus bos,
including dairy cattle, and does not include any other kind of
livestock;
J. "dairy cattle" means animals of the genus bos
raised not for consumption but for dairy products and
distinguished from meat breed cattle;
K. "director" means the executive director of the
board;
L. "disease" means a communicable, infectious or
contagious disease;
M. "district" means a livestock inspection
district;
N. "equine" means a horse, pony, mule, donkey or
hinny;
O. "estray" means livestock found running at large
upon public or private lands, either fenced or unfenced, whose
owner is unknown, or that is branded with a brand that is not
on record in the office of the board or is a freshly branded or
marked offspring not with its branded or marked mother, unless
other proof of ownership is produced;
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P. "free-roaming horse expert" means an individual,
a corporation or an organization, including a corporation's or
organization's contractors, determined by the board to possess
qualifications, including demonstrated expertise in:
(1) conducting free-roaming horse herd
surveys;
(2) analyzing the ownership status and animal
carrying capacity of land in conjunction with environmental
health; and
(3) understanding free-roaming horse habitat,
biology, behavior, management strategies and population
dynamics;
[P.] Q. "inspector" means a livestock or brand
inspector;
[Q.] R. "livestock inspector" means a certified
inspector who is granted full law enforcement powers for
enforcement of The Livestock Code and other criminal laws
relating to livestock;
[R.] S. "mark" means an ear tag or ownership mark
that is not a brand;
[S.] T. "meat" means the edible flesh of poultry,
birds or animals sold for human consumption and includes
livestock, poultry and livestock and poultry products;
[T.] U. "mule" means a hybrid resulting from the
cross of a horse and [an ass ] a donkey; and
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[U.] V. "person" means an individual, firm,
partnership, association, corporation or similar legal entity."
SECTION 2. Section 77-2-30 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2005,
Chapter 236, Section 1, as amended) is amended to read:
"77-2-30. EQUINE RESCUE OR RETIREMENT FACILITY--
REGISTRATION--BOARD POWERS AND DUTIES--FEES.--
A. As used in this section, "facility" means an
equine rescue or retirement facility, including a public or
private reserve or [private ] preserve, that [advertises or
solicits for equines and provides lifelong care or finds new
owners for equines that are unwanted or have been neglected or
abused or captured wild equines that cannot be returned to
their range] provides lifelong care or finds new owners for
unwanted, abused or neglected equines or captured free-roaming
horses, but does not include a federal facility .
B. A facility shall not operate in New Mexico
unless registered by the board.
C. The board shall:
(1) register facilities that meet the
requirements of this section and rules promulgated by the
board;
(2) annually consult with representatives from
the equine industry, equine rescue organizations and
veterinarians on facility standards; and
(3) after consideration of recommendations by
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national organizations for the care of unwanted equines and
equine rescue and retirement facilities, promulgate rules for
facilities, including:
(a) health and sanitary requirements;
(b) standards for barns, paddocks,
pastures and ranges;
(c) qualifications of the facility
staff;
(d) provision of veterinary care;
(e) feeding and watering requirements;
(f) transportation;
(g) a process to issue a temporary
capacity waiver to a facility for the purpose of transferring
equines in the custody of the board to a facility; and
(h) other requirements necessary to
ensure the humane care of equines.
D. The board may establish fines and penalties not
exceeding one thousand dollars ($1,000) per violation for
violations of this section.
[D.] E. The board may charge the following fees:
(1) an initial inspection and registration fee
of not more than two hundred fifty dollars ($250);
(2) an annual inspection and registration fee
of not more than one hundred dollars ($100); and
(3) reinspection fees of not more than one
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hundred dollars ($100).
[E.] F. Fees collected pursuant to this section
shall be deposited in the New Mexico livestock board general
fund and may be used to carry out the provisions of this
section and Section 77-2-31 NMSA 1978."
SECTION 3. A new section of Chapter 77, Article 2 NMSA
1978 is enacted to read:
"[NEW MATERIAL] FREE-ROAMING HORSE EXPERT--APPROVAL OF
QUALIFICATIONS--RULES.--
A. An individual, a corporation or an organization
that provides free-roaming horse or herd management services,
administers free-roaming horse fertility control or captures a
free-roaming horse for relocation in New Mexico shall be
registered by the board; provided that this subsection shall
not apply to the federal bureau of land management or the
United States forest service acting in accordance with
applicable federal law, regulations and policy.
B. The board shall:
(1) promulgate rules regarding the
determination and approval of qualifications and registration
of free-roaming horse experts;
(2) register free-roaming horse experts that
meet the requirements of this section and the rules promulgated
by the board; and
(3) revoke the registration of a free-roaming
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horse expert that fails to comply with Section 77-18-5 NMSA
1978, or related rules, and apply other penalties that the
board deems appropriate.
C. The board may charge the following fees:
(1) an initial approval fee of not more than
five hundred dollars ($500); and
(2) an annual registration fee of not more
than two hundred fifty dollars ($250).
D. Fees collected pursuant to this section shall be
deposited in the New Mexico livestock board general fund and
may be used to carry out the provisions of this section."
SECTION 4. Section 77-18-5 NMSA 1978 (being Laws 2007,
Chapter 216, Section 1) is amended to read:
"77-18-5. [WILD HORSES--CONFORMATION, HISTORY AND
DEOXYRIBONUCLEIC ACID TESTING--SPANISH COLONIAL HORSES--BIRTH ]
FREE-ROAMING HORSES--HUMANE MANAGEMENT--FERTILITY CONTROL--
PROHIBITIONS.--
[A. As used in this section:
(1) "public land" does not include federal
land controlled by the bureau of land management, the forest
service or state trust land controlled by the state land
office;
(2) "range" means the amount of land necessary
to sustain a herd of wild horses, which does not exceed its
known territorial limits;
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(3) "Spanish colonial horse" means a wild
horse that is descended from horses of the Spanish colonial
period; and
(4) "wild horse" means an unclaimed horse on
public land that is not an estray.
B. A wild horse that is captured on public land
shall have its conformation, history and deoxyribonucleic acid
tested to determine if it is a Spanish colonial horse. If it
is a Spanish colonial horse, the wild horse shall be relocated
to a state or private wild horse preserve created and
maintained for the purpose of protecting Spanish colonial
horses. If it is not a Spanish colonial horse, it shall be
returned to the public land, relocated to a public or private
wild horse preserve or put up for adoption by the agency on
whose land the wild horse was captured.
C. If the mammal division of the museum of
southwestern biology at the university of New Mexico determines
that a wild horse herd exceeds the number of horses that is
necessary for preserving the genetic stock of the herd and for
preserving and maintaining the range, it may cause control of
the wild horse population through the use of birth control and
may cause excess horses to be:
(1) humanely captured and relocated to other
public land or to a public or private wild horse preserve;
(2) adopted by a qualified person for private
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maintenance; or
(3) euthanized; provided that this option
applies only to wild horses that are determined by a
veterinarian to be crippled or otherwise unhealthy. ]
A. A state, county or municipal government or
governmental subdivision may enter into an agreement with a
registered free-roaming horse expert to conduct free-roaming
horse surveys and management and determine land carrying
capacity. If a qualified free-roaming horse expert determines
as part of such an agreement that the free-roaming horse or
herd exceeds the carrying capacity of the land inhabited, as
determined using the best available science, the expert, and
that expert's employees, contractors and volunteers, may cause
control of a free-roaming horse or herd upon the approval of
the appropriate landowner through:
(1) the use of fertility control via
immunocontraception or castration;
(2) humane capture and relocation to an equine
rescue or retirement facility, with permission of the facility,
having the capacity to accept free-roaming horses that is
registered with the board pursuant to Section 77-2-30 NMSA 1978
or an equivalent out-of-state facility that meets the board's
facility standards for lifelong sanctuary care or for the
purposes of adoption of the free-roaming horse or horses;
(3) humane capture and relocation to land,
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with the permission of the landowner, that has the capacity to
sustain free-roaming horse herds or family bands; or
(4) for a horse determined by a veterinarian
licensed to practice in New Mexico to suffer from a medical
condition that significantly impacts the horse's quality of
life and cannot be reasonably treated, humane euthanasia.
B. A free-roaming horse captured pursuant to this
section and relocated to an equine rescue or retirement
facility shall be microchipped or freeze branded for individual
and ownership identification purposes.
C. Nothing in this section shall authorize a
qualified free-roaming horse expert to engage in herd
management activities on federal or tribal land.
D. Nothing in this section shall affect the federal
bureau of land management's or the United States forest
service's authority to manage free-roaming horses that are not
subject to the federal Wild Free-Roaming Horses and Burros Act
and found on lands administered by the federal bureau of land
management or the United States forest service, including the
federal bureau of land management's or the United States forest
service's authority to gather, remove and sell free-roaming
horses in accordance with applicable law, regulations and
policy.
E. A person shall not slaughter, allow to be
slaughtered, export for slaughter or release from a facility or
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adoptive home into the wild a free-roaming horse. A person who
violates this subsection is guilty of a misdemeanor and upon
conviction shall be sentenced in accordance with the provisions
of Section 31-19-1 NMSA 1978. Each free-roaming horse that a
person slaughters, allows to be slaughtered, exports for
slaughter or releases constitutes a separate offense.
F. As used in this section:
(1) "adoption" means the taking of custody and
ownership of a free-roaming horse by a qualified individual who
has demonstrated to the equine rescue or retirement facility in
possession of that horse the capacity and intent to provide
humane treatment and care of the animal, including proper
feeding, sheltering, husbandry, handling and care;
(2) "carrying capacity" means the number of
free-roaming horses that a given amount of land can support
long-term while maintaining or improving healthy vegetation,
soil, water and free-roaming horse herds inhabiting that land,
taking into account human uses and wildlife populations;
(3) "free-roaming horse" means an unclaimed
horse found at large that is not an estray due to lack of
evidence of private ownership or domestication and does not
include horses subject to the jurisdiction of the federal
government pursuant to the federal Wild Free-Roaming Horses and
Burros Act;
(4) "humane capture" means to gather or move
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free-roaming horses to a holding location using baited corrals
or other low-stress methods whenever feasible, but does not
include use of aircraft or motorized vehicles;
(5) "humane euthanasia" means to produce a
humane death of an animal by standards deemed acceptable by the
board of veterinary medicine as set forth in the board's rules;
and
(6) "qualified free-roaming horse expert"
means an individual who has been approved by the board ."
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