Lancaster County, SC Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Lancaster County protects wildlife, including birds, specifically on its own park and recreation property rather than through a county-wide wildlife chapter. Sec. 24-3(3) makes it unlawful for any person to kill, harm or harass any mammal, bird, reptile or amphibian while in a county park or recreation area, and the only way around that ban is a permit issued by the parks and recreation department itself; there is no exception for pest control, nuisance wildlife or accidental encounters built into the text. The rule sits in the same numbered list of prohibited park acts as the county's separate ban on destroying, cutting or removing any tree, shrub, plant, rock, mineral or geological feature except by department permit, so together the two provisions function as a broad protect-the-park-environment rule covering both flora and fauna.

A companion item bars hunting in any park area outright, without the department-permit exception that applies to the harm-a-bird provision. Because this bird protection rule is written into the parks and recreation article, it applies specifically within county parks and recreation areas and facilities; it does not purport to regulate hunting, trapping or wildlife handling on private land elsewhere in unincorporated Lancaster County, which is governed by South Carolina's wildlife statutes rather than by this county chapter. Sec. 24-4 applies the article's misdemeanor penalty to any violation of the bird and wildlife protection rule.