Animals and Fish - Historical Notes

The following is a listing of acts that at one time affected, but no longer appear to have any effect on, hunting, fishing or animal control in Greene County.  They are included herein for reference purposes.  Also referenced below are acts which repeal prior law without providing new substantive provisions.

1. Public Acts of 1893, Chapter 152, made it a misdemeanor to kill or capture any game bird from the first of February to the first of November of each year in Greene County.
2. Public Acts of 1899, Chapter 110, made it unlawful to net, trap, or capture quail or partridges in Greene County for five years after passage of this act.
3. Public Acts of 1899, Chapter 159, made it lawful to catch fish and baskets or bait nets in the streams of Greene County, but this was amended by Private Acts of 1901, Chapter 267, to make it unlawful to catch bass from March 1st to June 1st of each year and unlawful to catch trout from September 1st to March 1st.  Almost immediately the legislature amended the amendatory act changing the closed season on bass to June 1st through August 1st, and providing that even during those dates, bass could be caught with hook and line.
4. Private Acts of 1901, Chapter 212, made it lawful to catch fish in the Nolichucky River by means of a fish trap except between March 15th and June 1st of each year.  Four years later this act was amended by Acts of 1905, Chapter 502, to provide that there would be no closed season on fishing with fish traps in the Nolichucky River.
5. Acts of 1903, Chapter 205, was the first stock law for Greene County, applying to swine, sheep and goats.  This law made it a misdemeanor to allow such animals to run at large, with damaged landowners given the right to impound wandering stock and a lien on them to secure payment of damages.  This was repealed by Acts of 1905, Chapter 228.
6. Acts of 1903, Chapter 411, defined a lawful fence in Greene County as one built on good sized, substantial posts, set firmly in the ground not more than 11 feet apart, consisting of four barbed wires or four planks running horizontally and fastened firmly to the posts, set at distances of 12 inches apart.
7. Acts of 1905, Chapter 246, was the next stock law for Greene County which made it illegal for owners of horses, mules, cattle, sheep, goats, swine or other livestock to allow them to roam at large.  This act gave damaged landowners the right to impound such wandering stock, provided that they gave notice to the stock owners, and also gave landowners a lien on such stock in order to secure payment of damages.
8. Private Acts of 1911, Chapter 50, enacted a fence law for Greene County.
9. Private Acts of 1911, Chapter 372, set the open season for fishing in Greene County from May 15th to November 30th of each year, and provided that fishing could lawfully be done by means of fish traps, baskets, nets, or seines.
10. Private Acts of 1917, Chapter 80, made it unlawful to shoot, trap, net, or in any way kill quail in Greene County from November 15, 1917, to November 15, 1922.
11. Private Acts of 1917, Chapter 135, made it unlawful to shoot any fox or destroy the den of any fox in Greene County.
12. Private Acts of 1919, Chapter 214, made it unlawful to hunt, kill, or net any game on the land of another without the written or verbal permission of the person in control of land.
13. Private Acts of 1919, Chapter 322, made it unlawful to trap, snare, spring-hole, dead fall, pen, or shoot with a gun any fur-bearing animal except during the open season on that animal.
14. Private Acts of 1921, Chapter 405, exempted Greene County from the general dog law of Tennessee.
15. Private Acts of 1927, Chapter 95, was a general fishing law for Greene County, setting the open season from April 1st to November 30th of each year.  Fishing could be done by means of traps or baskets with slats 2" apart, and the permission of the owners of land bordering the streams had to be obtained before fishing.  While an open season was declared by this act, there was a provision protecting black bass, rainbow trout, jack, wall-eyed pike and muskellunge, requiring that they be returned to the water if caught by any fisherman from a Greene County stream.
16. Private Acts of 1929, Chapter 753, was a general game law for Greene County, setting the open date on pheasants, quail, coon, skunk, mink, muskrat, and other types of wildlife found within the county.
17. Public Acts of 1968, Chapter 550, regulated the training of coon dogs and that taking of raccoons in Greene County.  This act was repealed by Public Acts of 1980, Chapter 496.