Elkhart County, IN Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Section 93.018 of the Park Rules, adopted with Ord. 12-177 on April 16, 2012, states: 'it shall be unlawful for any person within a park to kill, wound, hunt, trap, shoot, throw rocks or missiles at, chase, molest or remove any feral mammal, reptile, amphibian or bird, or knowingly to buy, receive, have in his or her possession, sell or give away any such mammal, reptile, amphibian, bird or egg so killed or taken within any park.' The prohibition covers birds specifically among the protected classes, along with their eggs, and reaches not just the act of killing but buying, selling or possessing an animal or egg taken unlawfully from a park.

Two narrow exceptions apply. The ordinance does not stop a person from fishing for personal use by continuously attended and monitored methods, and it does not stop hunting or trapping of certain species as a wildlife management tool if the Director of the Park Department or the Park Board has issued a specific permit for it. Outside those two carve-outs, there is no general hunting season or nuisance-wildlife exception inside county park boundaries.