St. Tammany Parish, LA Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

The parish created these sanctuaries division by division: Lake Village Subdivision under Sec. 10-84, Magnolia Forest Subdivision under Sec. 10-118, The Woods under Sec. 10-139, and Brier Lake Subdivision under Sec. 10-166, each with its own metes-and-bounds legal description recorded in the parish clerk of court's records. Within those boundaries, Sec. 10-85 bans hunting, trapping, shooting, snaring, caging, intimidating or molesting any bird, and bans robbing a wild bird's nest; it exempts birds legitimately kept and sold as house pets by a bona fide pet store, and birds that constitute a nuisance to property or health.

The companion sections for the later sanctuaries, Secs. 10-119, 10-140 and 10-167, repeat the same hunting and molestation ban and add that the feeding and care of birds is permitted and encouraged within those subdivisions. In Lake Village specifically, Sec. 10-87 goes further and bans discharging any firearm, handgun, rifle, shotgun, pellet gun, BB gun or other bullet- or projectile-launching device within a 400-foot perimeter zone measured outward from the front, rear and side lines of Lake Village phases one through seven, with an exemption for law enforcement and state or federal officers acting in their duties, and any citizen lawfully defending life or property.

Homeowners in each sanctuary bear the cost of posting the required "St. Tammany Parish Bird Sanctuary" signage themselves, though the parish department of public works must approve placement on any parish road or right-of-way. None of these protections apply parish-wide; they are limited strictly to the platted boundaries of the four named subdivisions.