Kirkwood, MO Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

38, protects small wild birds from being injured, molested, taken, or disturbed anywhere inside Kirkwood city limits. The only carve-out named in the text is for sparrows. The section does not define 'small birds' further, so complaints in practice are handled by the same City staff who administer the rest of Chapter 4's animal provisions rather than a dedicated wildlife office. Chapter 4's cross-references route related conduct elsewhere in the Code: keeping a noisy animal or bird falls under § 17-70(e) of the disturbing-noises ordinance, injuring wildlife specifically within a City park is separately punishable under § 18-4, and § 18-16 governs animals generally within park boundaries, while § 18-13 covers horses in parks.

Because § 4-2 carries no penalty clause of its own, and the chapter's old general penalty section, former § 4-36, was repealed in 2018, a violation falls back to the citywide default in § 1-8: a fine of not less than $5 and not more than $1,000, imprisonment for up to three months, or both, with each day a violation continues charged as a separate offense. Complaints are handled through the Department of Public Services, the same office that administers Kirkwood's other animal-control provisions in this chapter, since Kirkwood does not maintain a stand-alone animal control department.

The provision predates the City's current animal-control framework and has not been substantively amended since the 1959 code, aside from technical amendments made when the Code was readopted.