CHAPTER 86

An Act to require certain licenses to hunt certain game in Smyth County;
to provide for collection and disposition of license fees; to prescribe
penalties for violations of the provisions of this act; and to repeal
certain acts.

[H 256]

Approved February 20, 1952

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Virginia:

1. § 1. It shall be unlawful for any person to hunt bear or deer in the
county of Smyth without having first obtained a special stamp as herein
provided, the annual fee therefor being as follows: for residents of the
State of Virginia, one dollar; for nonresidents of the State of Virginia, five
dollars. The stamp shall be adhesively affixed to the back of the current
season’s hunting license issued such person who shall cancel the same with
his initials in ink.

§ 2. The money received from the sale of such special stamp shall
be paid to the county treasurer to the credit of a special fund, and the net
amount thereof, or so much as is necessary, shall be used for the payment
of damages to crops or livestock by deer or bear in the county, whenever
such damage amounts to ten dollars or more; except that the clerk of the
circuit court shall be allowed to retain a fee of ten cents for each such spe-
cial stamp sold. Such payments shall be limited to the net amount accruing
in the special fund from the sales of such stamps in the county during the
license year in which the damage occurred and any surplus remaining at
the end of such year shall remain in such fund and be used for the con-
servation of wild life in the county under the direction of the board of
supervisors, and in cooperation with the Department of Game and Inland
Fisheries. Any person suffering such damage shall report the same
promptly to the board of supervisors of the county, whose duty it shall
be to investigate the same at once or appoint three disinterested persons
to appraise and report such damages to the board, which shall have the
right to approve or disapprove such report. The claim for damages shall
be filed in duplicate under oath on forms furnished by the clerk of the
county. If such report and claim be approved, the board of supervisors
shall forward such approved claim to the treasurer.

§ 3. The special stamps herein provided for shall be obtained from
the clerk of the circuit court of the county. Any person violating the pro-
visions of this act shall be guilty of a misdemeanor and upon conviction
punished accordingly.

2. <Any acts or parts of acts imposing similar license requirements as to
the hunting of bear or deer are hereby repealed, insofar as they affect
the county of Smyth