Akron, OH Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

18, "Restricting certain animals," is Akron's core backyard-livestock ordinance. Subsection A bans keeping chickens or other poultry in any dwelling or within 100 feet of one, a distance that effectively rules out backyard chicken coops on a typical city lot. Subsection B applies the same logic to rabbits, but at a shorter 25-foot buffer. Subsection D covers "other hoofed animals": horses, ponies, cows, calves, goats, and similar livestock. Keeping them anywhere in the city is banned outright unless the Director of Neighborhood Assistance issues a permit, and permits are available only for lots of one acre or larger.

A permitted hoofed animal must also be kept at least 50 feet from any building used for human habitation, and the Director can attach conditions covering odor, noise, and sanitation, or call a public hearing before the Commission to set added restrictions. The one exception that lets a smaller residential lot keep a hoofed animal without a permit is a single spayed or neutered pygmy goat meeting National Pygmy Goat Association standards, kept as a house pet in a fenced area at least four feet high with shelter and prompt droppings removal.

Hogs are banned city-wide with a similar narrow carve-out, covered separately in subsection C, for one registered miniature potbellied pig under 65 pounds. The ordinance derives from Ordinance 716-1992 and 514-1992, most recently amended by Ordinance 133-2022, and violations are enforced by the Director of Neighborhood Assistance and the City's Animal Control Warden.