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

(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 his designee. No pistols shall be used. 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.

(c) The department shall issue tags similar to those provided for in Section 4331 at the same time the permit is issued. A permittee under this section shall carry the tags while hunting deer, and upon the killing of any deer, shall immediately fill out both parts of the tag and punch out clearly the date of the kill. One part of the tag shall be immediately attached to the antlers of antlered deer or to the ear of any other deer and kept attached until 10 days after the permit has expired. The other part of the tag shall be immediately sent to the department after it has been countersigned by any person authorized by Section 4341.

(d) 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 shall account for all prior tags issued at the time he or she received any prior permits, and if any tags are unused, he or she shall show either that any deer killed could not reasonably be tagged or why the killing was not accomplished within the allotted time and why that killing would be accomplished under a new time period.

(Amended by Stats. 2007, Ch. 285, Sec. 81. Effective January 1, 2008.)