Boone County, KY Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Chapter 91's definitions section, § 91.01, defines LIVESTOCK as "cattle, sheep, swine, goats, emus, ostriches, horses or any other animals of the bovine, ovine, porcine, caprine, ratite or equine species," and separately excludes from the county's commercial-animal-establishment rules any "farms and agricultural establishments solely engaged in the breeding, raising and/or selling of livestock and poultry for food, fiber, agricultural research or any other agricultural endeavor." The Code does not set a minimum acreage, coop setback or head-count limit for keeping chickens or other livestock on a residential lot in unincorporated Boone County; any such dimensional standard would fall under the county's Zoning Regulations, which are adopted by reference in Chapter 156 and are a separate document from the Code of Ordinances, not this file.

What Chapter 91 does regulate is livestock running at large: § 91.20(A) bars letting any owned or harbored animal, including livestock, roam free countywide, and requires Animal Control or a Law Enforcement Officer to make "reasonable efforts to notify the owner as soon as possible" when livestock are found loose, notifying the owner before capture and impoundment "if reasonably possible and feasible." An owner whose livestock is impounded after running at large must also reimburse the county for capture, boarding and veterinary costs under § 91.99(G).