---
title: O.C.G.A. § 4-4-174. Escaped deer or cervid.
collection: code
id: 4-4-174
cite_as: O.C.G.A. § 4-4-174 (2025)
canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/4-4-174
md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/4-4-174.md
text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/code/4-4-174/text
source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/api/document/docs/default-source/joint-features-document-library/t4-6-(v4)-2013-pdf.pdf?sfvrsn=8c0a1199_0#page=68
date: 2025
status: active
corpus_version: 2025-supplement-89aa39ab3c68
license: CC0-1.0
publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice.
up: https://georgiacommons.org/code/4-4.md
previous: https://georgiacommons.org/code/4-4-173.md
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index: https://georgiacommons.org/code/index.md
version: the only printed version
in_force: true
current_through: Including Acts of the 2025 Regular Session of the General Assembly
heading_path: ANIMALS / PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF DISEASE IN LIVESTOCK / DEER FARMING
---

# O.C.G.A. § 4-4-174. Escaped deer or cervid.

Any farmed deer or cervid which escapes from a licensed deer farm shall be subject to the jurisdiction of the Department of Natural Resources and may be treated as an escaped wild animal which is subject to the provisions of Chapter 5 of Title 27, except that, while such animal is roaming freely outside the enclosure of any licensed deer farm, the owner of such farmed deer or cervid shall have 48 hours from the time the escape is detected to recapture such animal and return it to the licensed deer farm. As a condition for maintaining a deer-farming license, it shall be the duty of the owner or operator of a licensed deer farm to notify the Department of Natural Resources immediately upon discovery of the escape of a farmed deer. When such notice has been given, no legal hunter shall be held liable for killing or wounding an escaped deer.

## History

Code 1981, § 4-4-174, enacted by Ga. L. 1997, p. 1395, § 2.