Palm Beach Gardens, FL Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Section 14-2 of the Code of Ordinances, adopted by Ordinance No. 17-1997 on November 20, 1997, makes the entire City of Palm Beach Gardens a bird and animal wildlife sanctuary. The ordinance sits in Chapter 14, Animals, Article I, alongside the city's household-pet limits and leash requirement in Section 14-1, and it cross-references Florida's care-and-control-of-animals statute, F.S. ch. 828, without displacing the city's own broader ban. Section 14-2(b) bars intentionally killing, injuring, molesting, or harming any bird or animal wildlife found within the corporate limits, covering songbirds, wading birds, and other wild fauna common around PGA National's lakes and the city's preserve lands.

The only carve-outs are self-defense, defending another person, a licensed veterinarian acting within lawful authority, and governmentally sanctioned animal control action, so a homeowner cannot invoke a nuisance-wildlife excuse to justify trapping or harming an animal on their own initiative. Enforcement runs through the code enforcement special magistrate created in Chapter 2, Section 2-187 et seq., who hears cases referred by a city code inspector after a Section 14-2 notice of violation and can issue a compliance order carrying the fine schedule set out in Section 2-237.

The Palm Beach Gardens Police Department and, for domesticated-animal matters, Palm Beach County Animal Care and Control, are the agencies most likely to field a complaint, but a wildlife-harm case under Section 14-2 itself is a code enforcement matter, not a criminal citation.