Sport hunting licence in Puerto Rico

It is the authorisation the Secretary of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources grants to practise sport hunting in Puerto Rico. The Act declares all wildlife species within its jurisdiction to be property of Puerto Rico, and the permit follows from that: hunting is not an open right but a licensed activity. Alongside the licence, in the same framework, goes the registration of the hunting weapon, which the Act links to the firearms register.

Article 13(a) requires being eighteen, and Article 13(a)(2) refers to Article 16 for minors: those aged at least fourteen may obtain a conditional sport hunting licence. You must also be mentally and physically capable, accredited by a physician authorised to practise in Puerto Rico on the form the Secretary authorises; have passed the hunter education course; be a person of recognised moral solvency in the Secretary’s judgement; and keep a clean penal record at the Police Bureau. Article 17 details when a conviction stops being a bar, with terms running from one year to fifteen depending on the offence, and warns that whoever breaches wildlife law more than once in ten years may be denied for up to ten years, and that a second repeat may cost the licence permanently.

• No person may sport hunt in Puerto Rico without first applying for and obtaining a licence from the Secretary; licences are valid five (5) years and renew on the applicant’s date of birth (Article 12).Verified against the official source
• Being mentally and physically capable, accredited with a certification from a physician duly authorised to practise medicine in Puerto Rico, on the form the Secretary authorises (Article 13(a)(1)).Verified against the official source
• Having passed a hunter education course including an exam on this Act and its regulations, skills in the use and handling of hunting weapons, and basic knowledge of Puerto Rico wildlife (Article 13(a)(3)).Verified against the official source
• Attaching a sworn statement of never having been convicted of a felony or of a crime involving violence or moral depravity, nor of breaches of the Weapons Act, the Controlled Substances Act, this Act or federal wildlife regulation (Article 13(a)(5)).Verified against the official source
• Keeping a clean penal record file at the Police Bureau of Puerto Rico (Article 13(a)(6)).Verified against the official source
• The Secretary will not register a hunting weapon if the applicant has not previously obtained the hunting licence or the game preserve permit; and if the weapon is also a firearm, it must first be in the Electronic Register of the 2020 Weapons Act (Article 11(b) and (c)).Verified against the official source

• The medical certification of mental and physical capacity, on the form the Secretary authorises (Article 13(a)(1)).
• Evidence of having passed the hunter education course; the Secretary credits certifications from other jurisdictions whose course has similar content (Article 13(a)(3)).
• A copy of the current weapons licence, which the Act considers sufficient evidence of moral solvency (Article 13(a)(4)).
• The clean penal record certificate and the sworn statement; on renewal, also a sworn statement that the conditions of the original grant remain unchanged (Articles 13(a)(5), 13(a)(6) and 13(b)).

1. 1

   Step 1: The licence expires on your birthday

   It is the most practical rule in the whole Act and the one most people get wrong, so it goes first. Article 12 says no person may sport hunt in Puerto Rico without first applying for and obtaining a licence from the Secretary for those purposes, and that licences shall be valid five years from issue and shall be renewed on the applicant’s date of birth. It is not exactly five years from the date you were given it: it is your birthday. Article 13(b)(1) confirms it when setting the renewal deadline, counted backwards from that date.

2. 2

   Step 2: The eight requirements to obtain it

   Article 13(a) lists them. One, being mentally and physically capable, and accrediting it by attaching to the application a certification from a physician duly authorised to practise medicine in Puerto Rico, made on the form the Secretary authorises. Two, being eighteen; minors of at least fourteen may obtain a conditional sport hunting licence under Article 16. Three, having passed a hunter education course including an exam on this Act, its regulations, skills in the use and handling of hunting weapons and basic knowledge of Puerto Rico wildlife; the Secretary determines what the student pays and credits certifications from other jurisdictions whose course has similar content. Four, being in the Secretary’s judgement a person of recognised moral solvency, and here the Act gives a useful shortcut: presenting a copy of the current weapons licence shall be considered sufficient evidence. Five, the sworn statement. Six, the clean penal record. Seven, paying the fees the Secretary requires by regulation, which go to the Special Wildlife Management Fund. Eight, any other requirement the Secretary deems pertinent.

3. 3

   Step 3: What you swear to

   Article 13(a)(5) requires attaching to the application a sworn statement that you have never been convicted by any court of Puerto Rico, abroad or of the United States, of a felony or of any crime involving acts of violence or moral depravity; nor of any breach of the Weapons Act of Puerto Rico or the Controlled Substances Act; nor been convicted or fined for violating any provision of this Act or its regulations, or any federal wildlife regulation. It is worth reading carefully because it is not limited to crimes: it includes having been fined for wildlife breaches. And Article 22(b) prices lying there: whoever intentionally commits falsehood or fraud in presenting the application commits a misdemeanour, with a fine of one hundred to five hundred dollars.

4. 4

   Step 4: Renewal has three clocks

   Article 13(b) organises renewal around your birthday. First, the normal deadline: the request is made in writing to the Secretary thirty business days before the expiry date, which is your date of birth, accompanied by the corresponding form with a clean penal record certificate and a sworn statement that the conditions existing when the original grant was made remain unchanged. Second, the short delay: if it was not requested within that term and no more than six months have passed since expiry, the renewal form must be filled and the fees the Secretary determines for a late renewal paid. Third, the long delay: if more than six months have passed, all the initial requirements must be met again, as if for the first time. And on top of the three there is a ceiling: licences may be renewed by this simplified route only for three consecutive terms; on applying for a fourth renewal, the applicant must again meet the Article 13(a) requirements.

5. 5

   Step 5: The weapon comes after the licence, not before

   Article 11 sets an order worth respecting so as not to waste a trip. Subsection (c) is blunt: the Secretary shall not register a hunting weapon if the person applying has not previously obtained the corresponding hunting licence or the game preserve permit. And subsection (b) adds the firearms layer: if the hunting weapon is also a firearm, the Secretary may not register it unless it is already in the Electronic Register created under the Weapons Act of Puerto Rico of 2020, and changes of owner of those weapons must follow that same Act. Subsection (d) closes the circle on the trade side: no hunting weapon dealer or gunsmith shall hand over a weapon until the buyer shows they hold a hunting licence or preserve permit and obtained the Secretary’s written authorisation for that purchase. And subsection (f) recalls something surprising: if you are going to use a bow and arrow, you must register the bow, and the Secretary issues a registration stating its model and serial number.

6. 6

   Step 6: If you come from outside: sixty days

   Article 16(e) creates the sport hunting licence for non-residents. It may be obtained by anyone holding and carrying a hunting licence valid in any United States state, and licences valid in foreign countries with requirements similar to Puerto Rico’s are also accepted. There is an indispensable prior requirement: before practising sport hunting here, the non-resident must present evidence of having passed a hunter education course with content similar to the one the Department develops. The permit has a clear limit: it authorises sport hunting during the first sixty days from arrival; after those sixty days, if the person remains in Puerto Rico and wishes to keep hunting, they must complete the Article 13 requirements. Two further conditions: they may carry hunting weapons that are also firearms only in places where the sport of hunting is practised, and if they import their weapon they must register it under this Act and the 2020 Weapons Act.

7. 7

   Step 7: When a conviction stops counting

   Article 17 is the one that says whether applying is worth it. A conviction for aggravated assault shall be no bar if more than ten years have passed since the last sentence served, or fifteen years in the case of felonies. Nor shall it be a bar if a year has passed since the last sentence for simple assault or breach of the peace was served; nor if more than a year has passed since the applicant served the sentence for violating this Act or its regulations, or the resolution or fine imposed by the Department or the Federal Government for breaching wildlife laws. But the same article sets two brakes. Whoever within a ten-year term has breached wildlife laws and regulations, or the Department’s or the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service’s, more than once may be denied the application for a term of up to ten years. And if they repeat a second time in any violation of wildlife laws and regulations, the hunting licence may be denied permanently.

8. 8

   Step 8: The three penalty tiers, counted per specimen

   Article 22 orders them from least to greatest and the counting unit is what multiplies the damage: per specimen. The general one: whoever violates any provision of this Act or its regulations commits a misdemeanour, with a fine of not less than one hundred and not more than five hundred dollars per specimen, or imprisonment for a maximum term of six months, or both at the court’s discretion. The second, for harmful and venomous species: a felony, with a mandatory fine of not less than one thousand and not more than five thousand dollars per specimen, or imprisonment of six months and one day to three years, or both. And the third, the harshest, grouping three behaviours: commercial import and trade of illegal, harmful or venomous exotic species; hunting on public or private land without the corroborable consent of the owner, administrator or person in charge; and breaches of the regulations on vulnerable or endangered species. Those three are felonies with a fine of not less than five thousand and not more than fifty thousand dollars per specimen, or imprisonment of ninety days to three years, or both. The middle one is worth underlining: hunting without the landowner’s verifiable permission is in the Act’s highest tier.

9. 9

   Step 9: Where what you pay goes

   Article 23 creates the Special Wildlife Management Fund, administered by the Department. Into it go the amounts collected for licences, permits and stamps this Act establishes, plus fines, donations and interest. The fund is used primarily to run the licence and permit programme, the hunter education programmes, the dissemination of information about the Act and its regulations, the surveillance and administration of hunting programmes, and research aimed at protecting and managing wildlife. And a fixed allocation worth knowing: twenty-five per cent of the fund goes to DRNA’s Ranger Corps to acquire equipment, train rangers and provide direct care to seized animals.

Before the Secretary of the Department of Natural and Environmental Resources, who issues the sport hunting licence, authorises the hunter education course, registers hunting weapons and grants the Article 16 permits. If the hunting weapon is also a firearm, you must first pass through the Electronic Register of the Weapons Act of Puerto Rico of 2020. The penal record certificate is issued by the Police Bureau of Puerto Rico. Field surveillance is carried out by DRNA’s Ranger Corps. The Act publishes no addresses, telephones, forms or portals, and we do not guess government internet addresses.

• Counting the five years from the date the licence was issued: it expires on your birthday.
• Leaving renewal to the end: it is requested in writing thirty business days before expiry.
• Believing a late renewal is always the same: within six months a fee is paid, after six months all the requirements must be met again.
• Assuming it renews indefinitely by the simplified route: only three consecutive terms, and on the fourth the Article 13(a) requirements must be met afresh.
• Buying the weapon before having the licence: the Secretary does not register a hunting weapon for someone who did not first obtain the licence or preserve permit.
• Forgetting the Electronic Register: if the hunting weapon is also a firearm, it must already be registered under the 2020 Weapons Act.
• Thinking the bow does not count: Article 11(f) requires registering it, with model and serial number.
• Hunting on someone else’s land with verbal permission: the Act requires the corroborable consent of the owner, administrator or person in charge, and without it it is a felony with a fine of five thousand to fifty thousand dollars per specimen.
• Believing the fine is a single one: the three tiers of Article 22 are counted per specimen.
• Assuming an old conviction disqualifies you for ever: Article 17 sets terms of one, ten and fifteen years depending on the offence.
• Omitting a wildlife fine from the sworn statement: the statement covers convictions and fines, and lying is a misdemeanour.
• Arriving from abroad and hunting straight away: the non-resident needs a valid licence from another state or country and evidence of the hunter course, and it only covers the first sixty days.

These are the government pages this guide is based on.

• Departamento de Recursos Naturales y Ambientales (DRNA)

  DRNA

  bvirtualogp.pr.gov