New Mexico Statutes Chapter 17. Game and Fish and Outdoor Recreation § 17-11-2. Definitions

A. “bona fide scientific research” means a research project that is not being conducted for commercial gain from the sale of animal parts and that is conducted by employees or contractors of the department or authorized by a scientific collection permit from the department;

B. “cage trap” means a trap that captures a live animal but does not grip an animal's body or body part and is not intended to kill the animal, including a live trap, a cage or box trap, a colony trap, a net and a suitcase-type live beaver trap, but does not include a corral;

C. “department” means the department of game and fish;

D. “depredation trapping” means the act of setting traps, snares or poisons on public land to reduce or prevent damage caused by wildlife to property or waterways, including harvested and stored crops and livestock;

E. “domestic animal” means any animal that is bred for and is typically subject to human control;

F. “ecosystem management” means actions that are necessary to maintain or increase the long-term sustainability and integrity of an entire system of living wildlife and their environment, including the restoration and conservation of wildlife populations and habitat, wildlife relocation, medical treatment of wildlife and the protection of threatened or endangered species;

G. “feral animal” means a domestic animal existing in an untamed state outside captivity or domestication and not under human control;

H. “government entity” means a local, state or federal government body or agency, a political subdivision of the state or an employee, agent or representative of the body, agency or political subdivision when acting within the scope of its governmental duties, but does not include an Indian nation, tribe or pueblo;

I. “leghold trap” means a spring-actuated device, either padded or unpadded, designed to capture an animal by the foot, leg or other limb, including a steel-jawed leghold trap, a padded-jaw leghold trap, a foot-hold trap, an egg trap, a duffer trap and all other similar traps;

J. “lethal body-gripping trap” means a rotating jaw trap designed to capture an animal by the body that is intended to fatally crush or otherwise kill the animal and includes conibear traps and all other similar traps;

K. “public land” means state-owned land, state-leased land, lands held in trust by the state, lands administered by the United States fish and wildlife service, the United States forest service, the federal bureau of land management, the national park service, the United States department of defense, state parks and any county or municipality, but does not include the interior of physical structures or land belonging to or held in trust for an Indian nation, tribe or pueblo;

L. “snare” means a wire or cable with a single closing device, often with a noose, with or without stops, that is used to capture, strangle or otherwise entangle an animal, but does not include use of a catch pole, leash or tether lawfully used by a person to temporarily restrain or relocate an animal;

M. “trap” includes a leghold trap, lethal body-gripping trap or cage trap;

N. “wildlife” means a member of a vertebrate species that is native to or found in New Mexico that is not under the direct control of a human or in captivity, but does not include a feral or escaped domestic animal; and

O. “wildlife poison” means an explosive compound or deleterious substance used in a manner intended to kill wildlife.