Post by Woody Williams on May 9, 2009 18:47:09 GMT -5
From a Paducah Sun article:
Court rejects ban on imported deer, elk
Appellate ruling upholds Clymer declaration of law as unclear
Staff, AP reports
Saturday, May 09, 2009
FRANKFORT, Ky. - The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled Friday the state’s law banning the importation of deer and elk to prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease in local herds was unconstitutionally vague.
The ruling stemmed from a 2007 McCracken County case.
A three-judge panel ruled Friday that Kentucky’s law did not clearly define what it means to “import” animals into the state. At issue was the case of a Tennessee man arrested on charges of illegally importing elk and deer into Kentucky.
McCracken Circuit Judge Craig Clymer had ruled that the law under which Timothy Cory Looper of Livingston, Tenn., was charged was unclear and thus void. Looper was not convicted.
Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources conservation officer Sgt. Garry Clark arrested Looper, 25, on Sept. 20, 2007, when his pickup truck and gooseneck livestock trailer rig was intercepted on U.S. 60 west of Paducah.
The trailer contained five bull elk, one exotic axis deer buck, two black buck antelope and 12 exotic sheep from a wildlife auction at Hostetler Wildlife Farms, Miller, Mo. The animals reportedly were being trucked through Kentucky to the Wilderness Hunting Lodge near Monterey, Tenn.
“He engaged in no deception,” Chief Judge Sara Combs wrote in Friday’s opinion. “It is reasonable to believe that he drove through Kentucky in good faith — having no fair notice from a statute lacking the precision to alert as to the possibility of criminal consequences.”
Wildlife authorities took the animals to Murray State University’s Breathitt Veterinary Center in Hopkinsville for the elk and axis deer to be tested for chronic wasting disease. Lacking a live animal test for the disease, the six animals were euthanized.
Kentucky lawmakers in 2006 instituted a statewide ban on the importation of the animals into Kentucky.
The law, as enforced, prohibited people from crossing Kentucky state lines with deer or elk — a measure intended to protect local herds from chronic wasting disease.
Shane A. Young, Looper’s attorney, said the law that was poorly written and confusing. He said that made it difficult to understand exactly what was illegal.
The exact effect of Friday’s appellate court ruling was uncertain. Attorneys for the state have the option of appealing to the Kentucky Supreme Court.
Bill Clary, a spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, said the practical consequences of the ruling “are not very great.”
The North American Deer Farmers Association sued in federal court to challenge the law. A federal judge dismissed the challenge in September 2008.
Mark Marraccini, a spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, said a new law that takes effect this summer also bans the importation of cervid animals into the state, but allows certain exemptions.
For example, the law will allow the animals to be imported if they are from a herd that has been disease-free for five years and is from a disease-free state, Marraccini said.
Court rejects ban on imported deer, elk
Appellate ruling upholds Clymer declaration of law as unclear
Staff, AP reports
Saturday, May 09, 2009
FRANKFORT, Ky. - The Kentucky Court of Appeals ruled Friday the state’s law banning the importation of deer and elk to prevent the spread of chronic wasting disease in local herds was unconstitutionally vague.
The ruling stemmed from a 2007 McCracken County case.
A three-judge panel ruled Friday that Kentucky’s law did not clearly define what it means to “import” animals into the state. At issue was the case of a Tennessee man arrested on charges of illegally importing elk and deer into Kentucky.
McCracken Circuit Judge Craig Clymer had ruled that the law under which Timothy Cory Looper of Livingston, Tenn., was charged was unclear and thus void. Looper was not convicted.
Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources conservation officer Sgt. Garry Clark arrested Looper, 25, on Sept. 20, 2007, when his pickup truck and gooseneck livestock trailer rig was intercepted on U.S. 60 west of Paducah.
The trailer contained five bull elk, one exotic axis deer buck, two black buck antelope and 12 exotic sheep from a wildlife auction at Hostetler Wildlife Farms, Miller, Mo. The animals reportedly were being trucked through Kentucky to the Wilderness Hunting Lodge near Monterey, Tenn.
“He engaged in no deception,” Chief Judge Sara Combs wrote in Friday’s opinion. “It is reasonable to believe that he drove through Kentucky in good faith — having no fair notice from a statute lacking the precision to alert as to the possibility of criminal consequences.”
Wildlife authorities took the animals to Murray State University’s Breathitt Veterinary Center in Hopkinsville for the elk and axis deer to be tested for chronic wasting disease. Lacking a live animal test for the disease, the six animals were euthanized.
Kentucky lawmakers in 2006 instituted a statewide ban on the importation of the animals into Kentucky.
The law, as enforced, prohibited people from crossing Kentucky state lines with deer or elk — a measure intended to protect local herds from chronic wasting disease.
Shane A. Young, Looper’s attorney, said the law that was poorly written and confusing. He said that made it difficult to understand exactly what was illegal.
The exact effect of Friday’s appellate court ruling was uncertain. Attorneys for the state have the option of appealing to the Kentucky Supreme Court.
Bill Clary, a spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture, said the practical consequences of the ruling “are not very great.”
The North American Deer Farmers Association sued in federal court to challenge the law. A federal judge dismissed the challenge in September 2008.
Mark Marraccini, a spokesman for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife, said a new law that takes effect this summer also bans the importation of cervid animals into the state, but allows certain exemptions.
For example, the law will allow the animals to be imported if they are from a herd that has been disease-free for five years and is from a disease-free state, Marraccini said.
