Commerce City, CO Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Sec. 4-2000(c), part of Article II's "Mistreatment and neglect of animals generally," makes it unlawful for any person to knowingly, recklessly or negligently capture, ensnare, net, trap or in any other manner molest or injure any animal, and separately makes it unlawful to molest or injure the nest, eggs or young of any birds or fowl. The section carves out insects, mice, rats, bats and other wild rodents from the general trapping ban, but the nest, egg and young protection for birds and fowl carries no comparable carve-out.

Subsection (h) closes an obvious loophole by providing that committing the prohibited acts on private property is not a defense to a charge under this section, so a homeowner cannot claim the nest was on their own lot. Subsection (i) preserves a narrow property-protection exception: an animal causing damage, injury or destruction to private property may still be trapped or restrained with a snare or mechanical device designed not to injure it, by the property owner, occupant, their agent, or a city, state or federal agent acting in an official capacity, but that exception is about trapping a nuisance animal, not about disturbing a nest.

Because the definition of "Animal" in Sec. 4-1001 already includes birds, the nest and egg protection in subsection (c) operates as a specific reinforcement of that broader definition rather than a stand-alone bird ordinance, and it sits alongside the chapter's bans on poisoning (Sec. 4-2001) and on failing to maintain sanitary animal enclosures (Sec. 4-2002).