Ridgewood, NJ Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Section 212-5 of Chapter 212, Parks and Recreation Areas, first adopted August 27, 1974 by Ordinance No. 1541 as Chapter 22 of the 1974 Code, makes it unlawful for any person to hunt, molest, injure, capture or in any way interfere with the freedom of any bird that is free and undomesticated in a Village public park, and extends the same protection to squirrels, fish and other animals living in those parks. The rule sits inside Chapter 212's Article I general provisions alongside companion sections that protect park property more broadly: § 212-1 bars entering posted lawn or cultivated ground, § 212-2 bars littering, and § 212-4 bars selling goods or distributing advertising inside a park.

A separate, Village-wide rule in § 215-5 of the Peace and Good Order chapter bars hunting anywhere within Village limits, not just in parks, so a hunter cannot avoid § 212-5's park-specific bird protection by arguing hunting itself is otherwise regulated elsewhere. Because § 212-5 protects birds by their wild and undomesticated status, it does not reach a resident's own pet birds or poultry kept on private property; it applies only to wildlife found within the Village's public parks.