State v. Cleve

• Decision Date: 11 March 1999
• Docket Number: 24-734
• Citation: 980 P.2d 23
• Court: New Mexico Supreme Court
• Parties: STATE OF NEW MEXICO, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. CHARLES CLEVE, Defendant-Petitioner.Opinion Number: 1999-IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO Filing Date:

STATE OF NEW MEXICO, Plaintiff-Respondent v CHARLES CLEVE, Defendant-Petitioner

Docket No. 24,734

Opinion Number: 1999-NMSC-017

IN THE SUPREME COURT OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO

Filing Date: March 11, 1999

ORIGINAL PROCEEDING ON CERTIORARI

William P. Johnson, District Judge

Phyllis H. Subin, Chief Public Defender, Christopher Bulman, Assistant Appellate Defender, Santa Fe, NM for Petitioner

Hon. Patricia A. Madrid, Attorney General, Ralph E. Trujillo, Assistant Attorney General, Santa Fe, NM for Respondent

James R. Scarantino, Albuquerque, NM, Birch, Horton, Bittner and Cherot, William P. Horn, Douglas S. Burdin, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae, Wildlife Conservation Fund of America

OPINION

SERNA, Justice.

{1} Defendant Charles Cleve appeals the Court of Appeals' affirmance of his two convictions of cruelty to animals. A jury found Cleve guilty of two counts of unlawful hunting and two counts of cruelty to animals based on his killing of two deer. Cleve contends that his actions, while within the scope of the prohibition against unlawful hunting, are not contemplated by the prohibition against cruelty to animals. We hold that New Mexico's statute proscribing cruelty to animals applies only to domesticated animals and wild animals previously reduced to captivity. Additionally, we believe it is necessary to clarify the application of the general/specific statute rule in New Mexico. Applying this rule, we hold that the comprehensive laws in New Mexico governing hunting and fishing preempt application of the cruelty-to-animals statute to the hunting of game animals. We therefore reverse Cleve's cruelty-to-animals convictions.

I. Facts

{2} Cleve owns a one-hundred acre ranch near Elk, New Mexico. At one time, Cleve maintained a herd of approximately three hundred cows on the land. Beginning in the early 1970's, however, Cleve began having difficulty with as many as one hundred deer coming onto his land and destroying his crops and pastures. As a result, Cleve needed to purchase more feed and was forced to reduce the number of cows in his herd.

{3} Around 1977, Cleve began requesting assistance from the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (Department) in alleviating his deer problems. Over the course of approximately twenty years, the Department, through numerous means, attempted to reduce the number of deer on Cleve's property. The Department eventually leased Cleve's property for two years and used it as a wildlife viewing area. In 1994, the Department, although recognizing the persistence of the deer problem, terminated its lease and, the following year, notified Cleve that it had exhausted its efforts to alleviate his situation.

{4} Three months after receiving the letter from the Department, faced with a continued presence of deer on his land and apparently no further outside assistance, Cleve decided to kill some of the deer. On several occasions, Cleve shot at the deer on his property. Witnesses reported that Cleve shot in the direction of a fishing camp, as well as a highway, and that several bullets had gone into the camp area. Cleve shot at least thirteen deer, five in the abdomen, and snared two others. In one of the snares, a fawn was caught by the neck and died of strangulation, probably within about five minutes of being caught. In the other snare, a spike buck was caught by its antlers and died of either stress-related fatigue, starvation, or dehydration.

{5} The State charged Cleve with three counts of negligent use of a deadly weapon, see NMSA 1978, § 30-7-4 (1993), seven counts of cruelty to animals, see NMSA 1978, § 30-18-1 (1963), and fifteen counts of unlawful hunting, see NMSA 1978, § 17-2-7(A) (1979). The State relied on the two snared deer and the five deer shot in the abdomen for the cruelty-to-animals charges. Cleve filed a motion to dismiss the cruelty-to-animals charges on the ground that Section 30-18-1 is limited to domesticated animals and does not contemplate cruelty to game animals. The trial court denied the motion. The jury found Cleve guilty of two counts of unlawful hunting, two counts of cruelty to animals, and one count of negligent use of a deadly weapon. The two snared deer formed the basis for the convictions of unlawful hunting and the convictions of cruelty to animals.

{6} Cleve appealed his conviction of two counts of cruelty to animals to the Court of Appeals. Cleve argued that game and fish statutes and regulations preempt application of Section 30-18-1 to game animals. In addition, Cleve contended that Section 30-18-1 is limited to cruelty committed against domesticated animals. The Court of Appeals rejected both of Cleve's arguments and affirmed his convictions. State v. Cleve, 1997-NMCA-113, ¶¶ 3-15, 124 N.M. 289, 949 P.2d 672. The Court of Appeals concluded that the prohibition against unlawful hunting contained in Section 17-2-7 and the prohibition against cruelty to animals contained in Section 30-18-1 "exist for different purposes." Id. ¶ 7. "It is possible to illegally hunt game animals, but not to have been cruel in killing them. . . . Conversely, one could be convicted of cruelty to animals, but not of unlawful hunting of game animals." Id. ¶ 8. The Court of Appeals concluded that "both the cruelty statute and the game and fish laws and regulations are necessary to fully protect wild animals, and these two statutes can co-exist." Id. Additionally, the Court of Appeals concluded that game animals must be included within Section 30-18-1 because to hold otherwise would "leav[e] many animals unprotected [and] would create an unjust or absurd result." Id. ¶ 12. We granted Cleve's petition for writ of certiorari to the Court of Appeals in order to examine the scope of Section 30-18-1 and its relationship to Section 17-2-7 and other laws governing hunting and fishing, and we now reverse.

II. Standard of Review and Rules of Statutory Construction

{7} Cleve argues that the trial court and the Court of Appeals misconstrued Section 30-18-1 as being applicable to his snaring of two deer. The "[i]nterpretation of a statute is an issue of law" that is subject to de novo review. State v. Rowell, 121 N.M. 111, 114, 908 P.2d 1379, 1382 (1995).

{8} Our ultimate purpose in the interpretation of a statute is to ascertain and give effect to the intent of the Legislature. Roth v. Thompson, 113 N.M. 331, 332, 825 P.2d 1241, 1242 (1992). In doing so, we look first to the plain language of a statute. Wilson v. Denver, 1998-NMSC-016, ¶ 16, 125 N.M. 308, 961 P.2d 153. However, "courts must exercise caution in applying the plain meaning rule. Its beguiling simplicity may mask a host of reasons why a statute, apparently clear and unambiguous on its face, may for one reason or another give rise to legitimate (i.e., nonfrivolous) differences of opinion concerning the statute's meaning." State ex rel. Helman v. Gallegos, 117 N.M. 346, 353, 871 P.2d 1352, 1359 (1994). As a result, we must examine the context surrounding a particular statute, such as its history, its apparent object, and other statutes in pari materia, in order to determine whether the language used by the Legislature is indeed plain and unambiguous. See id.

III. Interpretation of Section 30-18-1

{9} Section 30-18-1 provides:

Cruelty to animals consists of:

A. torturing, tormenting, depriving of necessary sustenance, cruelly beating, mutilating, cruelly killing or overdriving any animal;

B. unnecessarily failing to provide any animal with proper food or drink; or

C. cruelly driving or working any animal when such animal is unfit for labor.

The Court of Appeals concluded that the phrase "any animal" plainly means all animals, including game animals. See Cleve, 1997-NMCA-113, ¶ 12. The Court of Appeals relied on the lack of definition for "animal" in Section 30-18-1, unlike the cruelty statutes of some other states, id. ¶¶ 10-11, and the lack of alternative protection for many animals if they were excluded from Section 30-18-1. Id. ¶ 12. Additionally, the Court of Appeals reviewed other criminal statutes relating to animals containing specific references to domesticated animals and concluded that the lack of specificity in Section 30-18-1 was a deliberate choice of the Legislature. Id. ¶13. We disagree with the Court of Appeals' construction of Section 30-18-1.

{10} In State v. Buford, 65 N.M. 51, 331 P.2d 1110 (1958), this Court reviewed a statute nearly identical to Section 30-18-1 in defining cruelty to animals. See id. at 52, 331 P.2d at 1110 (quoting in substantial part 1887 NM Laws, ch. 1, § 1 (repealed 1963)). The prosecution in Buford charged the defendant with cruelty to animals in relation to a cockfighting incident. Id. at 51, 331 P.2d at 1110. In determining whether New Mexico's cruelty-to-animals statute prohibited cockfighting, we discussed the cruelty-to-animals statutes of a number of other states. Id. at 52-55, 331 P.2d at 1111-13. In addition, we reviewed England's Cruelty to Animals Act, which also prohibited the overdriving, abusing, or torturing of any animal and which defined any animal as meaning horses, dogs, cats, and other domestic animals. Id. at 55-57, 331 P.2d at 1113-14. We assumed in Buford that gamecocks fell within the phrase "any animal" in New Mexico's cruelty-to-animals statute. Id. at 52, 331 P.2d at 1111. In addition, we acknowledged that the terms torture and torment "would seem to embrace fighting cocks equipped with artificial spurs or gaffs capable of cutting deep wounds and sharp gashes in the cocks." Id. at 57-58, 331 P.2d at 1114. However, we "look[ed] at the statute as a whole," and we noted that "[t]he language of the statute . . . seems to apply only to brute creatures and work animals and the history shows that it was passed in relation to other laws governing livestock." Id. at 58, 331 P.2d at 1114-15. As a result, because, unlike most states, no New Mexico statute specifically prohibited cockfighting, we applied the rule of lenity and...