Page images
PDF
EPUB
[blocks in formation]

1. If any dog shall maim or kill a sheep or lamb, the owner of the dog, upon conviction before a Justice, shall cause the dog to be immediately killed.

2. The owner of any sheep or lamb so maimed or killed, may recover the damage sustained from the owner of the dog; if such damage amount to or be less than twenty dollars, before any Justice, with costs, and if such damage exceed twenty dollars, before any Court of competent jurisdiction, with costs.

3. If the owner of the dog, after the conviction mentioned in the first Section, neglect to kill such dog, he shall be liable to a fine of four dollars for every time such dog shall be found running at large, and in default of payment, or of goods and chattels whereon to levy the fine, the party convicted shall be imprisoned for a term not less than four days.

4. After the conviction mentioned in the first Section of this Chapter, the Justice may issue his warrant to a constable, requiring him forthwith to cause the dog to be killed.

5. Any person may kill a dog found running at large after it has been known to kill any sheep or lamb.

6. Any dog unaccompanied by its owner found chasing sheep shall be liable on view of any person to be killed by such person, and the owner of such dog shall be liable on proof to the owner of any sheep so chased, for any damage sustained by reason of such chasing, to be recovered with costs in the same manner as provided in the second Section of this Chapter.

7. In any action against a person for killing a dog under the authority of this Chapter, the defendant may plead the general issue and give the special matter in evidence.

[blocks in formation]

PROTECTION OF CERTAIN ANIMALS.

1. No person shall hunt, take, kill, wound or destroy any moose, cariboo, or deer from the first day of January to the first day of August, in any year, under a penalty of a sum not exceeding sixty dollars for each and every such act; and any person may lawfully shoot or otherwise kill any dog found hunting moose within the time or with the person herein prohibited.

2. No person shall hunt, take, kill, wound, trap or otherwise destroy any mink, otter, fisher, sable, or beaver, between the first of May and the first of September in any year, under the penalty of a sum not exceeding twenty dollars. for each such act.

3. The fact of any person having in his possession the carcass of a moose, cariboo, or deer, or any part thereof, or the hide thereof, within the time specified in the first Section of this Chapter, shall be prima facie evidence of his having hunted or killed the same contrary to the provisions of this Chapter, and such person shall be liable to the penalties imposed by the said first Section; provided always, that in such cases the person so charged shall be admitted as a witness to rebut such presumption.

4. The fact of any person having in his possession the carcass of any animal mentioned in the second Section of this Chapter, or the green or fresh pelt or hide thereof, within

the time specified in the said second Section, shall be prima facie evidence of his having hunted, killed, taken or trapped the same contrary to the provisions of this Chapter; and the fact of any person having been found hunting within the time specified in the said second Section, having in his possession any trap or traps, shall be prima facie evidence of his hunting contrary to the provisions of the said second Section, and in either case such person shall be liable to the penalties imposed by the said Section; but in case of any such evidence being given as in this Section is provided, the person so charged shall be admitted as a witness to rebut such presumptions.

5. The Governor in Council shall, for the purposes of the first twelve Sections of this Chapter, appoint a Game Warden for each County in this Province, (and the words "Warden" or "County Warden" as used herein, shall mean a Game Warden), each of whom may appoint, in writing, one or more Deputies under him, and require of them suitable bonds for the faithful performance of their duties; and said Wardens and their Deputies, in the several Counties shall faithfully enforce the provisions of the first twelve Sections of this Chapter; each of the Deputies shall annually, on or before the first day of October in each year, render to his principal an account under oath of all penalties by him enforced for the preceding year, and shall pay to him one tenth of the net proceeds thereof; each County Warden shall annually on the thirty first day of October in each year, render to the Provincial Secretary an account on oath of all the penalties enforced by himself, or returned to him by his Deputies, for the year ending on the first day of October; the penalty in neglecting so to do for a Warden shall be forty dollars, and for a Deputy twenty dollars, and the Warden shall immediately give notice to the County Secretary of the County for which such Warden was appointed, of every such neglect of his duty by a Deputy Warden, and the Provincial Secretary shall give such County Secretary notice of any such neglect of the Warden; and the County Secretary shall proceed for every such neglect of which he has notice; in such prosecution the certificate of the Provincial Secretary shall be prima facie evidence of the fact of such neglect to make a return to him.

6. The County Council of each County shall have power to appoint a Warden for each Parish in the said respective Counties, who shall have concurrent jurisdiction with and the same powers and rights as the County Warden and his Deputies, and who shall make a like return to the Provincial Secretary under a penalty of twenty dollars, to be proved and recovered in like manner.

7. Each of the officers appointed hereunder shall have the same authority to require aid in the execution of his office as Sheriffs or their Deputies have.

8. All penalties under the first twelve Sections hereof shall be sued for and recovered in the name of the County Warden, or one of his Deputies, or the Parish Warden; and the same, when recovered, shall be paid, three-fourths to the County Warden, or Deputy Warden, or Parish Warden, as the case may be, who prosecutes, and the remainder to the County Treasurer of the County where the penalty was enforced; any person may prosecute for any of the acts herein forbidden, provided no such Warden or Deputy, within ten days after the act is committed, prosecute there for.

9. The County Warden, his Deputies, or Parish Warden, and each and every of them, are hereby authorized and empowered to seize all carcases, or any part thereof, and all hides, pelts or traps found in the possession of any person contrary to the provisions of this Chapter, and shall forthwith proceed before a Justice of the Peace residing near the place of seizure, for the forfeiture and condemnation of the same; such Justice is required to hear the parties, after giving the party from whom the said carcases, or part thereof, hides, pelts or traps were taken, six days notice of such hearing, in a summary way, and if satisfied that the animal was killed contrary to the provisions of this Chapter, shall con demn the said carcases, or part thereof, hides, pelts, or traps, and order them to be sold, and the proceeds, after deducting the expenses of condemnation, shall be paid in the manner set forth in the eighth Section of this Chapter.

10. If the owner of any property mentioned in the last preceding Section, seized as therein authorized, be not known, then and in such case the Justice, on the application of the County Warden, his Deputies, or Parish Warden, shall cause the property so seized to be advertised in two

public places in his Parish for the space at least of ten days, and if no claim of ownership is made within the time named, the said Justice shall condemn and forfeit the said property and order a sale of the same, and the proceeds shall be appropriated, after deducting the expense of such condemnation and sale, in the mauner aforesaid, and the Justice shall keep a record of such condemnation in a book to be kept for that purpose.

11. The Provincial Secretary shall in each year lay before the Legislature the returns made by the Wardens under the provisions hereof.

PART II.

PROTECTION OF CERTAIN BIRDS.

12. No person shall take or kill any partridge, snipe, or woodcock, nor shall he sell or buy or have the same in his possession between the first of March and the first of September in any year, under the penalty of four dollars for each such act, the penalty to be recovered and applied as provided in the first Part hereof.

13. No person shall take or catch with a net or nets, or kill with any device or instrument known as swivel or punt gun any wild duck, brant or other wild fowl of the game kind, under a penalty of not less than twenty dollars nor more than forty dollars for each and every such act, to be recovered with costs before any two Justices of the Peace of the County in which the act is committed, under the provisions of any Act now or hereafter in force in this Province relating to proceedings before Justices of the Peace on summary convictions; provided always, that the ordinary musket or fowl ing piece shall not be considered a punt gun or swivel.

be

15. It shall be lawful for any person finding any net set or placed for the purpose of taking or catching any wild duck or other game birds, to seize and take the same before any Justice of the Peace of the County where the same may seized, and upon satisfactory proof to the said Justice of the illegal purpose for which the said net was being used when seized as aforesaid, he shall order the same to be destroyed.

15. Any person who shall set any net for the purpose of catching any wild duck or other game bird, shall be liable to a penalty of not less than ten dollars nor more than twenty dollars, to be recovered in the manner prescribed in the thirteenth Section of this Chapter.

« PreviousContinue »