Lafayette, LA Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Section 10-75(a) designates the entire area within the City of Lafayette's corporate limits as a bird sanctuary, and that designation automatically expands if the city limits are later amended by annexation. Section 10-75(b) then bars anyone from hunting, trapping, shooting, or attempting to hunt, trap or shoot any bird or wildfowl inside that boundary, and separately makes it unlawful to rob a bird's nest or a wildfowl's nest. The ordinance carves out one narrow escape valve for nuisance birds: if starlings or similar species are congregating in numbers that local authorities view as a menace to health or property, the authorities must first convene a meeting with the Audubon Society, a bird club, a garden club or a humane society if any exist in the city, giving those groups three days' actual notice of the time, date and place.

Only if that meeting produces no satisfactory alternative may the birds be destroyed, and even then the destruction must happen under the direct supervision of the Lafayette Police Chief or his or her appointee. 00, imprisonment up to six months, or both, with each day a violation continues charged as a separate offense. Animal care center officers and any police or law enforcement officer are authorized under § 10-73 to issue citations for this and every other provision of Chapter 10, and § 10-74 separately makes it unlawful to interfere with those officers while they investigate a complaint of unlawful hunting or nest robbing within sanctuary limits.