NORTH CAROLINA GENERAL ASSEMBLY

1979 SESSION

CHAPTER 360

HOUSE BILL 687

AN ACT TO PREVENT THE USE OF ARTIFICIAL LIGHT IN AREAS INHABITED BY GAME OR NONGAME ANIMALS IN GREENE COUNTY.

The General Assembly of North Carolina enacts:

Section 1.  Any person who, between the hour of ten o'clock p.m. on any day and one-half hour before sunrise on the following day, deliberately flashes or displays an artificial light from or attached to a motor-driven conveyance or from any means of conveyance attached to the motor-driven conveyance so as to cast the beam thereof beyond the surface of a roadway or in any field, woodland or forest in an area frequented or inhabited by game or nongame animals shall be guilty of a misdemeanor.  Every person occupying the vehicle or conveyance at the time of the violation shall be deemed prima facie guilty of the violation as a principal.

Sec. 2. The provisions of this act shall not apply to opossum or raccoon hunters accompanied by opossum or raccoon hunting dogs, or to frog hunters in or within 20 feet of water.

Sec. 3. The provisions of this act do not apply to the person while on land owned by him in fee simple or in which he has a life estate or a person who leases land for agricultural purposes, but the fact of such ownership shall be a matter of defense in any prosecution for violation of this act.

Sec. 4. The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission is authorized to issue permits to use lights for wildlife research purposes only.

Sec. 5. Each person violating the provisions of this act shall be fined not less than ten dollars ($10.00) nor more than fifty dollars ($50.00) or imprisoned not less than two days or more than 30 days, or both, in the discretion of the court.

Sec. 6. This act applies to Greene County only.

Sec. 7. This act is effective upon ratification.

In the General Assembly read three times and ratified, this the 13th day of April, 1979.