Homestead, FL Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Sec. 4-3 of the City of Homestead Code of Ordinances, carried over from Code 1975 § 5-7, designates the entire area within the city as a bird sanctuary. Sec. 4-4, derived from Code 1975 § 5-8, backs that designation with a broad prohibition: no one may trap, shoot, hunt or attempt to shoot any bird or wild fowl, molest one in any manner, or rob a bird's or wild fowl's nest, anywhere in the city. The only carve-out is narrow and administrative, not a resident's self-help right.

If birds congregate in a particular locality in numbers that, in the opinion of health authorities, create a nuisance or a menace to health or property, those birds may be destroyed, but only in the manner the health authorities deem advisable and only under the supervision of the Homestead Police Department. An ordinary property owner bothered by pigeons, grackles or other birds on their own land has no independent authority under this chapter to trap, shoot or otherwise molest them; that decision belongs to city health officials working with police oversight.

Chapter 4 does not attach its own fine to Secs. 4-3 or 4-4, so a violation falls to the citywide general penalty in Sec. 1-11: a fine of up to $500, up to 60 days in jail, or both, with each day a violation continues treated as a separate offense. Chapter 4 cross-references Chapter 19 (nuisances) and Chapter 7 (code enforcement) as the enforcement pathways, and separately notes the state law reference to cruelty to animals under Fla. Stat. Chapter 828.