Terrebonne Parish, LA Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Parish Code § 5-60 designates the entire area within the corporate limits of the city (the former City of Houma, now the parish's core urban district) as a bird sanctuary. Within that area it is unlawful for any person to trap, hunt, shoot or attempt to shoot or molest in any manner any bird or wildfowl, or to rob bird nests or wildfowl nests. The same protective language, designating the neighborhood as a bird sanctuary and banning trapping, hunting, shooting or nest-robbing, is separately codified for four named subdivisions: Lafayette Woods Subdivision including Shady Lane Park (§ 5-58), Parkway Circle Subdivision (§ 5-59), Lisa Park Subdivision including Louis Drive (§ 5-61) and Allemand Subdivision including Royce, Darlene, Doyle and Alcee Streets and Oak Manor Court (§ 5-62).

Each sanctuary section carries an identical nuisance exception: if starlings or similar birds congregate in numbers that the parish president and parish council find constitute a nuisance or a menace to health or property, those nuisance birds may be disposed of or destroyed. Chapter 5's general definitions section, § 5-1, separately defines 'bird sanctuary' as a designated area of refuge for any member of the genetic class Aves where hunting is illegal, tying the sanctuary sections together as one protective scheme administered by the animal control authority.