Bergenfield, NJ Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Section 344-44A of the Borough Code, part of Chapter 344's Article VII on animal control, flatly prohibits the owner or occupant of any premises in Bergenfield from keeping farm animals. The list is illustrative, not exhaustive ("including but not limited to"), and expressly names cud-chewing or hoofed animals, chickens, roosters and other fowl, and pigs, adding that the ban reaches pigs bred as pets, not just those raised for food or profit. Because the section covers every premises in the Borough without a zoning carve-out for larger residential lots, there is no minimum lot size or setback that unlocks backyard chickens or a coop in Bergenfield; the keeping itself is what is prohibited, regardless of flock size or distance from a property line.

The same article separately bans slaughtering any animal or fowl within the Borough (§ 344-44F) and commercial breeding of any species on private property (§ 344-44J), so a resident cannot work around the farm-animal ban by keeping birds for slaughter or breeding rather than eggs. The keeping-of-pigeons ban in § 344-44D and the exotic-bird cap of 10 birds in § 344-44H apply to different categories of birds and do not loosen the chicken and fowl prohibition in Subsection A. Enforcement runs through the Health Department and the Board of Health that administers Chapter 344's animal control article generally.