Newark, OH Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Section 618.16 of the Newark Code of Ordinances protects birds within the City of Newark, Ohio. Division (a) bars anyone from killing, maiming, wounding or injuring any bird in any manner, and from destroying the nests, eggs or young of any bird. The exceptions are named: hawks or owls damaging property, European starlings, English sparrows, common pigeons, crows or blackbirds damaging crops or other property, and birds otherwise constituting a nuisance. The nest and egg ban does not reach those excepted birds. Division (b) regulates how the excepted birds are removed: anyone exterminating or attempting to exterminate them must act in a safe and careful manner, as humanely as possible, and in such a way that no other birds, animals or persons suffer damage or injury. The section carries the history of Ordinance 61-85, passed 7-3-61, with its penalty added by Ordinance 07-30.

Two neighboring sections complete the picture. Section 618.20 prohibits hunting and trapping birds or other animals within the City limits, permits only humane box traps, and requires any non-companion animal trapped under it to be destroyed. It exempts law enforcement officers and bona fide pest exterminators acting within their official duties, a person recovering his or her own pet, bird or animal, and standard mouse or rat traps used against vermin in a home or business. Persons registered with and approved by the Director of Public Safety can take part in the Urban Goose Hunting Program in designated areas, and a person who claims that program without registration is deemed to have violated the box-trap rule. Section 618.06 separately bars dyeing or coloring baby poultry, including chicks and ducklings, and bars distributing poultry younger than four weeks in lots of fewer than three.