Medford, MA Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Section 6-48 opens with a preamble stating that non-migratory wild geese have grown into a large population within Medford, soiling town parks, playfields, ponds and reservoirs with droppings, making some areas unsuitable for public use, and that feeding has both increased the goose population and contributed to litter and a rat problem in public areas. The operative rule follows directly: no person may distribute any food to any waterfowl or scatter foodstuffs upon or around any reservoir, public park, recreation area, or any other public place within the City of Medford.

The prohibition is not limited to geese by name, it covers waterfowl generally, and it is not limited to a single park or reservoir, it applies citywide to any public place. The section was added by Ord. No. 728 in 2007 and sits in Chapter 6's Article II, Division 1, alongside the city's other dog and animal rules, meaning enforcement runs through the same animal control officer and police channel that Sec. 6-43 empowers for the rest of the chapter. There is no exception in the text for supplemental or occasional feeding, so an isolated act of scattering bread or seed for ducks or geese in a reservoir area or public park is enough to trigger the fine schedule the section sets out.