Wildlife (Amendment) Act, 2000

Amendment of section 33 (restriction on use of certain firearms etc.) of Principal Act.

41.—Section 33 of the Principal Act is hereby amended—

(a) in subsection (1), by the substitution of “hunt or injure in the course of hunting” for “kill or injure”,

(b) in subsection (2), by the substitution of “hunt” for “kill”, of “animal” for “mammal” and of “any explosive other than ammunition for, and used with, a firearm” for “a floating container containing an explosive substance”,

(c) in subsection (3), by the substitution of “hunt or injure in the course of hunting” for “kill or injure” and the insertion of “otherwise than under and in accordance with a licence granted in that behalf by the Minister” after “hare”, and

(d) in subsection (4), by the substitution of “animals” for “mammals” in both places where it occurs,

and the said subsections (1), (2), (3) and (4), as so amended, are set out in the Table to this section.

TABLE

(1) It shall be an offence for a person to hunt or injure in the course of hunting—

(a) with a repeating or automatic shotgun (other than a repeating or automatic shotgun which is adapted or modified so as to render it incapable of carrying more than three shotgun cartridges), with an airgun, air-rifle, gas-rifle, pistol or revolver, or with any firearm fitted with a silencer device, any wild bird,

(b) with a rifle, any protected wild bird.

(2) It shall be an offence for a person to hunt or injure any wild bird or wild animal with a spring gun, or with tracer shot or with any explosive other than ammunition for, and used with, a firearm.

(3) It shall be an offence for a person to hunt or injure in the course of hunting with a shotgun a protected wild animal other than a hare otherwise than under and in accordance with a licence granted in that behalf by the Minister.

(4) Subject to the foregoing subsections of this section, the Minister may make regulations specifying the type and calibre of firearms and ammunition which may be used to hunt wild birds and wild animals and providing that firearms and ammunition of any other type and calibre shall not be used to hunt such birds or animals.