Sheboygan, WI Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Sheboygan's bird rule is one sentence long. It has no species list, no size threshold and no split between public and private land. Section 18-6, titled Shooting birds, says that no person, except police officers in the line of duty, shall injure or destroy any bird in the city. Because the text says any bird, it reaches songbirds, waterfowl, gulls and pigeons alike, and the verbs injure and destroy cover more than firearms: a trap, a thrown object or poison that harms a bird falls inside the plain wording.

Two place-specific rules sit alongside it. Section 74-46, Protection of wildlife, says that no person shall kill, maim or remove any bird or animal in any public park. Section 34-40, also titled Protection of wildlife, says that no person shall destroy bird nests nor shall any person shoot or throw stones at birds or catch or kill any wild animal on the grounds of the city cemetery. Nest destruction is named expressly in the cemetery section, while the citywide rule in 18-6 speaks of injuring or destroying birds.

The exception in 18-6 is narrow: police officers acting in the line of duty. That language tracks section 18-5, which authorizes the city's police officers to kill animals running at large that cannot be captured safely, so the Police Department is the only city body whose authority to harm birds or other animals is printed in this chapter. Section 18-6 itself prints no permit or application process for property owners who want birds removed.

Bird feeding and bird keeping are handled in other sections of chapter 18. Section 18-16 says no person shall encourage the congregating of seagulls by feeding or any other means in any commercial zoning district. Section 18-14 says no person shall keep any ducks, geese, pigeons, chickens, birds, or other fowl within the city in any unsanitary condition or in any manner so as to be a nuisance, and it assigns inspections to the building inspection department.