2.__Exception.__The use of a dog or dogs to hunt or pursue bear is lawful in the following circumstances:

A.__The dog or dogs are used by state or federal employees to pursue a specific offending animal when the employees, or their designees, are acting in their official capacity for purposes of protecting livestock, domestic animals, threatened or endangered wildlife, public or private property or public safety; or

B.__The dog or dogs are used by the department or pursuant to a permit granted by the department to an accredited university for scientific or research purposes, but in no event for the purpose of killing bear.

3.__Penalty.__A person who violates this section is guilty of the unsportsmanlike practice of hounding, which is a Class D crime for the first offense.__A 2nd or subsequent offense is a Class C crime.

Sec. B-8. 12 MRSA §11303, sub-§2, as enacted by PL 2003, c. 414, Pt. A, §2 and affected by Pt. D, §7, is amended to read:

2. Prohibition. A person may not hunt, trap, molest or harass a bear or release dogs for the purpose of hunting bear within the area described in subsection 1. The commissioner, or the commissioner's agent, is exempt from this prohibition for the purpose of live-trapping nuisance bears pursuant to section 12260-A.

Sec. B-9. 12 MRSA §11304, as enacted by PL 2003, c. 414, Pt. A, §2 and affected by Pt. D, §7, is amended to read:

§11304. Permission to harvest another person's bear

A person may not, without the permission of the person conducting the hunt, kill or wound a bear that is treed or held at bay by another person's dog or dogs person.

Sec. B-10. 12 MRSA §11351, sub-§1, as enacted by PL 2003, c. 414, Pt. A, §2 and affected by Pt. D, §7, is amended to read:

1. Hunting bear after having killed one. A person may not hunt or trap bear after that person has killed or registered one during any open season. A person who violates this subsection commits a Class D crime for which the court shall impose a