Chesterfield County, VA Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Section 4-2, added by a January 2025 ordinance, states that the boundary line of every lot or tract in the county is a lawful fence as to any livestock or poultry as defined in section 4-21, and makes it unlawful for an owner or manager to permit livestock or poultry to run at large beyond the boundaries of the tract where the animals are regularly confined. Section 4-21 defines livestock broadly: cattle, horses, sheep, goats, pigs, cervidae, capradae, llama-genus animals, ratites, enclosed domesticated rabbits or hares, and any other animal raised for food or fiber, while poultry covers all domestic fowl and game birds raised in captivity.

Article II adds pig-specific siting rules: section 4-12 prohibits keeping pigs in an enclosure within one-quarter mile of a city boundary, within 200 feet of a church, school, public meeting place or private residence, or within 50 feet of a public road, though the residence-distance rule does not reach back to a pig enclosure that predates a newly built house within 200 feet. 1. 00 per bird from the owner if a magistrate has to order disposal. 00 per bird, once the animal warden has been notified within 72 hours and the claimant has exhausted remedies against the dog's owner.