CHAPTER 121

An Act to require a license to hunt certain wild animals in Highland
County and to provide for collection and disposition of the license
fees and to prescribe penalties for violations. " CH 174]

Approved March 3, 1954
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 Highland without first having obtained a special stamp as
herein provided, the fee therefor being one dollar annually. 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. 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 conservation of wild life in the
county under the direction of the board of stpervisors. Any person
suffering such damage shall report the same promptly to the game
warden of the county, whose duty it shall be to investigate the same at
once. The claim for damages shall be filed in duplicate under oath on
forms furnished by the clerk of the county. If the claimant and game
warden agree as to the amount of damage the game warden shall approve
the claim and forward it to the treasurer. If no such agreement is reached
between them the claim shall be submitted to the arbitration of three
persons in the customary manner and the award of the arbitrators shall
be final and binding.
§ 8. The special stamps herein provided for shall be obtained from
the clerk of the circuit court of the county who shall receive from the
special fund a fee of ten cents for each stamp so issued. Any person
violating the provisions 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to hunting bear and deer are hereby repealed insofar as they affect
Highland County.

38. An emergency exists and this act is in force from its passage.