It is enacted by the General Assembly as follows:

SECTION 1. Section 20-16-2 of the General Laws in Chapter 20-16 entitled "Fur Bearing Animals" is hereby amended to read as follows:

{ADD 20-16-2. Landowners -- Nuisance fur-bearers. -- ADD} Any person owning or leasing and operating any property and any person in his or her employ may, while on his or her own premises or the premises of his or her employer, in the case of an employee at the property, kill and take a fur-bearer which is worrying, wounding, or killing the domestic animals or livestock on the property, or destroying or mutilating agricultural crops or fruit trees on the property, {ADD or otherwise causing clear and immediate economic damage to any property belonging to that person or his or her employer, or creating a potential health hazard, ADD} provided that, except in the case of rabbits, the carcass of the fur-bearer shall be presented to the department within twenty-four (24) hours of taking. The animal may then be possessed by the landowner or lessee for the use of the immediate family of the landowner or lessee, and shall not be sold or offered for sale, except by special permission of the director.

SECTION 2. This act shall take effect upon passage.