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Conservation Act 1987

Miscellaneous

36: Trespassing livestock

You could also call this:

"What happens if your animals are on conservation land without permission"

If you have livestock on conservation land without permission, the government can take action. You need to make sure your livestock are not on conservation land without a lease or licence. The government can destroy, sell, or dispose of livestock that are on conservation land without permission and have no known owner.

If your livestock are on conservation land without permission and are causing damage, the government can take steps to stop the damage. The government will try to find the owner of the livestock before taking any action. If the owner cannot be found, the government can destroy the livestock.

If your livestock are branded or have a known owner, the government will try to contact you to remove them from the conservation land. The government will give you a month to remove your livestock from the land. If you do not remove your livestock, the government can destroy them and you may have to pay the costs of removing them.

The government considers livestock to be branded if they have a brand as defined in the Animals Act 1967. Livestock without a brand are considered unbranded. You can be charged for the costs of removing your branded livestock from conservation land.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM106633.

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Environment and resources > ConservationGovernment and voting > Government departments
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Part 6Miscellaneous

36Trespassing livestock

  1. All unbranded livestock that are at any time in any conservation area not comprised in a lease or licence for grazing purposes under this Act, and that have no reputed owner, shall be deemed to be the property of the Crown, and any warranted officer may cause any such livestock to be destroyed, sold, or otherwise disposed of, if authorised by the Minister to do so.

  2. Before destroying, selling, or disposing of any animal under subsection (1), a warranted officer shall take all reasonable steps to ascertain whether or not the animal has a reputed owner.

  3. Where branded livestock, or livestock that have a reputed owner, found on any conservation area not comprised in a lease or licence for grazing purposes cannot be impounded by reason of their wildness and are causing significant damage to natural or historic resources there, the Director-General may take all reasonable steps necessary to prevent the damage or reduce it to an insignificant level.

  4. Subsection (5) does not affect or restrict the exercise of the powers conferred by subsection (3).

  5. Where branded livestock, or livestock that have a reputed owner, found on any conservation area not comprised in a lease or licence for grazing purposes cannot be impounded by reason of their wildness but are causing no significant damage to natural or historic resources there, the Minister may authorise any warranted officer to issue, once a week for 2 consecutive weeks in some newspaper circulating in the locality, a notice calling on the owner to remove them from the land and giving warning that if they are not removed within 1 month from the date of the first of the notices they will be destroyed; and if any such livestock are not removed within the time mentioned in the notice, any warranted officer may cause them to be destroyed if so authorised by the Minister, and no liability shall attach to the Crown, or the Minister, or the warranted officer or any other person, for any damage occasioned by their destruction.

  6. Any reasonable costs incurred by the Department in rounding up, destroying, or otherwise disposing of, in accordance with this section, any branded livestock shall be recoverable in any court of competent jurisdiction from the owner by the Director-General.

  7. A warranted officer authorised under subsection (5) to issue a notice in respect of any livestock that have a reputed owner shall take all reasonable steps to bring the notice to the attention of the reputed owner.

  8. In this section, branded means bearing a brand within the meaning of section 69 of the Animals Act 1967; and unbranded has a corresponding meaning.

Notes
  • Section 36(5A): inserted, on , by section 21 of the Conservation Law Reform Act 1990 (1990 No 31).