(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 actual or immediately threatened damage or destruction shall, pursuant to regulations adopted by the commission, issue a revocable permit for the taking and disposition of those deer, for a designated period not to exceed 60 days.

(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 the director’s designee. No pistols shall be used.

(c) 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.

(d) At the time a permit is issued pursuant to subdivision (a), the department shall issue tags similar to those provided for in Section 4331. The permittee shall carry the tags while hunting the deer for which the permit was issued, and upon killing any deer, shall immediately do all of the following:

(1) Fill out both parts of the tag, and clearly punch out the date of the kill.

(2) Attach one part of the completed tag to the antlers of antlered deer, or to the ear of any other deer, and keep that part of the tag attached to the deer until 10 days after the permit has expired.

(3) Obtain a countersignature on the other part of the tag pursuant to Section 4341.

(4) Send the countersigned part of the tag to the department.

(e) 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 pursuant to this subdivision shall do all of the following:

(1) Account for all prior tags previously issued with all prior permits.

(2) If any of the previously issued tags are unused, show either of the following:

(A) That any deer previously killed pursuant to a previously issued permit could not reasonably have been tagged.

(B) Why the killing was not accomplished within the time allotted for that killing, and why the killing would be accomplished under a new time period.

(Amended by Stats. 2023, Ch. 132, Sec. 87. (AB 1760) Effective January 1, 2024.)