## Facts

- Charles Cleve owned a 100-acre ranch near Elk, New Mexico, and experienced extensive deer damage to crops and pasture over many years, resulting in higher feed costs and a reduced cattle herd.
- For roughly two decades, Cleve sought help from the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish, which attempted various measures to address the deer population, including leasing the land as a wildlife viewing area.
- In 1995, the Department informed Cleve it had exhausted its efforts to assist with the deer problem.
- About three months later, Cleve killed deer on his property by snaring and shooting them.
- The State charged Cleve with unlawful hunting under the game and fish laws and with two counts of cruelty to animals under NMSA 1978, § 30-18-1.
- A jury convicted Cleve of two counts of unlawful hunting and two counts of cruelty to animals.
- The Court of Appeals affirmed the cruelty-to-animals convictions on the theory that “any animal” in § 30-18-1 includes wild game animals.
- The New Mexico Supreme Court granted certiorari.

## Issues

1. Whether “any animal” in NMSA 1978, § 30-18-1 includes wild, free-roaming game animals (deer) or is limited to domesticated animals and wild animals reduced to captivity.
2. Whether New Mexico’s comprehensive hunting and fishing statutory scheme preempts use of the general cruelty-to-animals statute for conduct constituting the taking of game animals under the general/specific statute rule.

## Decision

- The court reversed Cleve’s cruelty-to-animals convictions.
- The court held that § 30-18-1 applies only to domesticated animals and wild animals previously reduced to captivity, not to wild, free-roaming game animals.
- The court held that New Mexico’s comprehensive hunting and fishing laws preempt application of the cruelty-to-animals statute to the hunting (lawful or unlawful) of game animals.
- The court recognized that Cleve’s conduct fell within the scope of unlawful-hunting prohibitions, but not within § 30-18-1.

## Legal Principles

- Statutory terms such as “any animal” are construed in context and consistent with legislative purpose, not by an unlimited literal reading detached from the surrounding statutory scheme.
- New Mexico’s cruelty-to-animals statute, NMSA 1978, § 30-18-1, protects domesticated animals and wild animals reduced to captivity; it does not extend to wild, free-roaming game animals.
- Under the general/specific statute rule, when a specific and comprehensive statutory scheme regulates a subject (hunting and fishing), it controls over a more general criminal statute (animal cruelty) that could otherwise be read to cover the same conduct.
- The game and fish laws occupy the field of regulating the taking of game animals, including methods, seasons, licensing, and penalties, thereby precluding cruelty-to-animals prosecutions for conduct constituting hunting of game animals.

## Conclusion

The New Mexico Supreme Court reversed Cleve’s animal-cruelty convictions, holding that the cruelty statute does not cover wild, free-roaming game and, in any event, the comprehensive hunting and fishing code precludes applying the general cruelty statute to the taking of game animals.


State v. Cleve, 980 P.2d 23 (N.M. 1999)