Massachusetts Statutes

Section 59. A person shall not hunt, or in any manner molest or destroy, any bird or mammal within the boundaries of any reservation, park or common, or any land owned or leased by the commonwealth or any political subdivision thereof, or any land held in trust for public use; ex…

[There is no 131:5A.]

Section 5B. The director shall administer the natural heritage and endangered species program in accordance with clauses (3) and (13A) of section four, and shall promulgate rules and regulations, subject to the procedures established in chapter thirty A, for said program, includi…

Section 5C. No person shall obstruct, interfere with or otherwise prevent the lawful taking of fish or wildlife by another at the locale where such activity is taking place. It shall be a violation of this section for a person to intentionally (1) drive or disturb wildlife or fis…

Section 6. The director, with the approval of the fisheries and wildlife board, may:— (1) for the purpose of providing public fishing grounds, acquire by gift, lease, easement, purchase, exchange or license or accept by transfer, fishing rights and privileges or lands or interest…

Section 60. A person shall not use any firearm, bow and arrow or other weapon or article in a careless or negligent manner so as to cause bodily injury or death to another while engaged in hunting or target shooting. Any person, while so engaged, who causes injury or death to any…

Section 61. A person shall not use any firearm, bow and arrow or other weapon or article in a careless or negligent manner so as to cause damage to property or livestock of another while engaged in hunting, fishing, trapping or target shooting. Whoever violates any provision of t…

Section 62. A person, with a percentage, by weight, of alcohol in their blood of eight one-hundredths or greater, or while under the influence of intoxicating liquor, or of marihuana, narcotic drugs, depressant or stimulant substances, all as defined in section 1 of chapter 94C, …

Section 63. A person, other than the director of law enforcement, his deputy directors of enforcement, chiefs of enforcement, deputy chiefs of enforcement, environmental police officers, deputy environmental police officers, warden and members of the state or local police in area…

Section 64. A person shall not use for hunting purposes any type of full automatic firearm, machine gun or submachine gun, or any crossbow, except as provided in section 69, nor use any tracer or incendiary ammunition for hunting or outdoor target shooting purposes except on a sk…

Section 65. Except as otherwise provided by law, a person shall not hunt any bird or mammal by the aid or use of any motor vehicle, including a snowmobile, helicopter or other aircraft, or any bird by the aid or use of any boat or floating device propelled by sail, steam, naphtha…

Section 65A. (a) For the purposes of this section, ''online shooting or spearing'' means the use of a computer or any other device, equipment, software or technology, to remotely control the aiming and discharge of any weapon including, but not limited to, any firearm, bow and ar…

Section 66. A person shall not, except during the prescribed open season when deer may be hunted lawfully with a shotgun, have in his possession a shotgun shell loaded with a rifled slug, single ball, buckshot of any size, BB shot or air rifle shot in any place where birds or mam…

Section 67. A person shall not use or possess, where birds or mammals may be found, any rifle chambered to take larger than twenty-two long rifle ammunition, or any revolver or pistol chambered to take larger than thirty-eight caliber ammunition between the hours of one half hour…

Section 68. A person shall not hunt any bird or mammal except raccoon or opossum by the aid or use of any artificial light, or hunt any bird with a swivel or pivot gun. Any weapon or equipment used in such hunting by any person convicted of a violation of this section shall be co…

Section 69. A person shall not carry or use a bow and arrow while hunting unless said bow and arrow meet such requirements as may be set by rules and regulations which the director is hereby authorized to promulgate. Such rules and regulations shall prescribe general design, weig…

Section 7. For the purpose of protecting any species of useful fish, birds or mammals and for aiding the propagation thereof, the director may acquire in fee by purchase, gift or devise, or may lease, or with the consent of the owners, may control, any land, water or shore or the…

Section 70. A person shall not, during the open season when deer may be hunted lawfully with a shotgun, hunt a bird or mammal with a rifle, revolver or pistol or by the aid of a dog, or have in his possession or under his control in any wood or field, a rifle, revolver or pistol,…

Section 71. A person shall not, during the open season when deer may be hunted lawfully with a shotgun, hunt or enter the woodlands of the commonwealth for the purpose of hunting unless he wears in a conspicuous manner or his chest, back and head a minimum of five hundred square …

Section 72. To each resident and nonresident hunting or sporting license shall be attached a deer tag in a form prescribed by the director. Such deer tag shall remain attached to said license until removed for the purpose of affixing to a deer as provided herein and shall be void…

Section 73. A person shall not hunt a moose.

Section 74. A person shall not take, disturb or destroy a nest or eggs of any bird except an English sparrow, crow, jay or starling. A city, town, county or private organization shall not offer or pay bounties for the killing or taking of any bird.

Section 75. Except as provided in section five, a person shall not hunt or have in his possession a wild turkey or take, molest, disturb, destroy or have in possession the nest or eggs of a wild turkey.

Section 75A. A person, unless he holds a special permit or license issued by the director, shall not hunt or have in his possession a bird of prey. No person shall take, molest, disturb, destroy or have in his possession the nest or eggs of any such bird, unless otherwise authori…

Section 76. Except as otherwise provided in sections four and thirty-seven, a person shall not remove or attempt to remove any mammal from any hole in a tree or in the ground, stonewall, or from within or under any ledge, stone or log; provided, that, anyone authorized by the own…

Section 77. A person may possess a ferret (mustela furo or mustela putorium furo) for the following purposes:— (1) As a household pet; provided, however, that such pet has been at the time of purchase neutered or spayed and has received inoculation against distemper and rabies or…

Section 77A. No person shall possess, sell, trade, breed, import, export or release a wild canid hybrid or wild felid hybrid, except as otherwise provided by rules and regulations of the division. Any mammal which is the offspring of the reproduction between any species of wild c…

Section 78. Nothing in section sixty-six or sixty-seven shall be construed to prohibit an owner or tenant of land or his authorized agent, as provided in section thirty-seven from protecting his property nor prohibit a person from transporting firearms or ammunition to or from th…

Section 79. Except as provided in sections four, five, thirty-seven, thirty-eight and eighty-three, a person shall not erect, set, use, locate, repair, tend or maintain any trap, net or snare for the purpose of taking or killing any bird or mammal, nor shall a person, except as p…

Section 8. In respect to any territory mentioned in section seven or fifty-nine, the director, with the consent of the appropriate authorities may make use of the land, water or shore within the territory as he deems best for the purpose of improving the feeding and nesting envir…

Section 80. A person shall not place, set, maintain, possess, or tend on the land of another, any trap, unless the same is registered in accordance with the provisions of this section. For the purpose of providing for the registration and identification of traps, the director sha…

Section 80A. Notwithstanding any other provision of this chapter, a person shall not use, set, place, maintain, manufacture or possess any trap for the purpose of capturing furbearing mammals, except for common type mouse and rat traps, nets, and box or cage type traps, as otherw…

Section 81. Whenever it shall appear to the governor that by reason of extreme drought there is danger of fire resulting from hunting, trapping, fishing or other cause, he may, by proclamation suspend the opening or continuance of any or all open seasons established by or under t…

Section 82. A person owning, keeping or possessing a dog shall not allow, permit or consent to such dog chasing, hunting, molesting, attacking or killing a deer. The director is hereby authorized to issue an order to restrain all dogs from running at large in any city or town whe…

Section 83. Officers in charge of public buildings in cities and such officers as the selectmen designate and appoint in towns may take such reasonable means and use such appliances, except poison, as in their judgment will effectively exterminate Engligh sparrows and starlings i…

Section 84. A person, except the owner or his authorized agent, shall not detain, hunt, injure or in any way interfere with a homing or carrier pigeon, or remove any identification mark, band or other thing from it.

Section 85. Except as prohibited or limited by federal legislation or regulation, any person who holds a sporting, hunting, fishing or trapping license issued to him as a nonresident may carry from the commonwealth such fish, reptiles, amphibians, birds or mammals as have been la…

Section 86. A person shall not without right enter in or upon any building or other structure, or any area of land, flats or water, set apart and used by or under authority of the director for conducting scientific experiments or investigations or for propagation, or fish in wate…

Section 87. The director of law enforcement, his deputy directors of enforcement, chiefs of enforcement, deputy chiefs of enforcement, environmental police officers and deputy environmental police officers, wardens and members of the state police in areas over which they have jur…

Section 88. The director, his deputy directors of enforcement, chiefs of enforcement, deputy chiefs of enforcement, environmental police officers and deputy environmental police officers, wardens and members of the state police in areas over which they have jurisdiction may reque…

Section 89. Fish, birds or mammals unlawfully taken or held, or any equipment, the possession or use of which is prohibited by any law relating to inland fisheries and game, may be the subject of a search warrant as provided in chapter two hundred and seventy-six. Any boat, vesse…

Section 9. If an order is made by the director establishing a wildlife sanctuary, as provided in section seven, he shall cause a copy of the order to be published once a week for two successive weeks in one or more newspapers published in the counties embracing the territory, and…

Section 90. (a)(1) Whoever violates clause (14) of section 4 relative to a dam or obstruction for passage of anadromous fish or who refuses or neglects to keep open or maintain a fishway as prescribed by the director shall be punished by a fine of $50 for each day that such perso…

Section 90A. A person whose privilege to hunt, trap or fish has been suspended or revoked in any other jurisdiction in the United States or Canada for an offense in that jurisdiction shall not be issued a license for such activity in the commonwealth, or, if such a license has be…

Section 90B. Whoever is convicted of a third or subsequent violation of section 5, 22, 65 or 68, within a 10-year period shall be punished by a fine of not less than $1,000 but not more than $15,000, by imprisonment for not more than 5 years in a state prison or by both such fine…

Section 91. Actions and prosecutions under this chapter shall, unless otherwise expressly provided, be commenced within two years after the time when the cause of action accrued or the offence was committed.