Freehold Township, NJ Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Freehold Township Code § 79-19(A) generally prohibits feeding any wild animal, birds or waterfowl anywhere in the Township, but subsection (B) carves out an explicit exception for ordinary backyard bird feeding: feeding of songbirds and other backyard birds shall be permitted outdoors at such times and in such numbers that three conditions are met. First, the feeding cannot create an unreasonable disturbance that affects the rights of surrounding property owners and renders other persons insecure in the use of their property. Second, it cannot create an accumulation of droppings on the property and surrounding properties.

Third, it cannot become an attractant for rodents or other wild animals, a direct link back to the general feeding ban's core concern. The exception is conditional, not absolute: a resident who feeds songbirds in a way that piles up droppings on a neighbor's property, or that draws rats, raccoons or other wild animals to a feeder, loses the protection of subsection (B) and falls back under the general prohibition. Because the same § 79-19(A)(3) escalation clause applies Township-wide, once the Township advises a property owner to address a feeder that has become a nuisance or wildlife attractant, continuing to maintain it unchanged becomes an independent violation.

The provision was adopted as part of the 2006 Animal Control article, Ord. No. O-06-6, and sits in Chapter 79, Township Committee legislation, not the Board of Health's separate animal chapter.