Troup County, GA Animal Ordinances: Bird Protection (2026)

Sec. 14-46 sits in chapter 14, article III, which Sec. 14-41 limits to the unincorporated area of the county and which Sec. 14-43 applies to anyone who commercially possesses, buys, sells, or displays an animal, requiring a permit from the county health department before doing so; the occasional sale of livestock as an accessory to a normal farm operation is exempt. Under that permit, Sec. 14-46 sets two specific standards for caged birds: each bird confined in a cage must have room to exercise freely and perch space without excessive crowding, and any sick, injured, or dead bird must be removed from its cage.

The broader care duties in Sec. 14-44 also apply to permitted bird keepers, including sufficient food and water, clean and sanitary quarters, adequate ventilation, and shelter from excessive heat or cold, along with a duty under Sec. 14-44(15) to shade caged animals from direct sunlight. Article I's general animal-cruelty ban in Sec. 14-11 independently makes it unlawful for anyone, permitted or not, to overload, maim, tease, torture, abuse, or kill any animal, or to deprive it of shelter, medical attention, or food and water. A violation of the caged-bird standard is prosecuted by the county's animal control department or health department and punished under the chapter's general penalty in Sec. 14-12, which points to Sec. 1-19.