Rochester Hills, MI Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

The ban lives in Chapter 70's general offenses article and predates most of the code's current numbering; both sections still carry only their 1976 Code cross-references, with no ordinance amendment history attached. Section 70-1 flatly prohibits hunting wild game or fowl, or carrying a gun, weapon or firearm within the city for that purpose, at any time, with no seasonal exception. Section 70-2 goes further, banning the use of any pit, pitfall, deadfall, cage, snare, trap, net or baited hook, or any drug, poison, chemical or explosive, to injure, capture or kill any bird, wild game or furbearing animal anywhere in the city, and it separately bans molesting, harassing or annoying any such bird, wild game or furbearing animal 'at any time or in any manner whatsoever.' That second clause reaches conduct well short of trapping or killing, covering ongoing harassment of birds and wildlife generally.

The one carve-out in Section 70-2 lets a resident use a live cage at their own place of residence to remove a wild animal that is creating a nuisance to the resident or the resident's family, so a homeowner can still trap a nuisance raccoon or opossum on their own property under that narrow exception. Section 70-3 rounds out the article by separately banning trespassing on someone else's land to hunt or trap wild game or fowl, closing off any argument that permission from a neighboring landowner overrides the city-wide ban.