Mount Pleasant, SC Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

31 of the Code of Ordinances, Mount Pleasant has declared the entire area within its corporate limits a bird sanctuary. Division (A) states that the whole town, not just parks or waterways, carries the designation. Division (B) backs the sanctuary with a molestation ban: no one may trap, hunt, shoot or attempt to shoot, or otherwise molest any bird or wild fowl, or rob a bird's or wild fowl's nest, anywhere in town. The ordinance carves out one narrow safety valve for nuisance flocks. If starlings or similar birds congregate in numbers large enough to threaten health or property, the proper health authorities must first meet with representatives of the Audubon Society, Bird Club, Garden Club, or Humane Society, after giving at least three days' notice of the meeting.

Only if that meeting produces no satisfactory alternative may the birds be destroyed, and even then only in the number and manner the health authorities consider advisable, and only under the supervision of the Chief of Police. In practice a resident cannot legally shoot, trap or otherwise harm nuisance birds on their own initiative; the multi-club consultation and Police Chief's supervision are mandatory prerequisites before any bird can be destroyed under this section.