Bristol, CT Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Section 4-8 of the Bristol Code of Ordinances is the city's rooster rule rather than a general livestock or flock-size ordinance: it does not limit the number of chickens, roosters or other fowl a property may keep, but it responds specifically to noise. Under subsection (a), once the city receives a valid noise complaint about a rooster, it will require that rooster to wear a noise reduction collar, vocal constriction collar or other noise reduction device or method. Subsection (b) makes failing to fit the required device an infraction, fined fifty dollars ($50.00) for each day the rooster goes without the collar or other device, so the penalty accrues daily rather than as a single flat fine.

Subsection (c) gives the city authority to go further: if more than three (3) complaints are received about the same rooster, the city may require that rooster's removal from the property altogether, regardless of whether a collar has been fitted. Subsection (d) exempts roosters kept on premises owned or leased by a charitable, eleemosynary or educational organization from the whole section, so a rooster on a nonprofit's property is not subject to the collar mandate or removal authority. The ordinance, adopted January 12, 2016, was originally intended to be numbered Section 4-5 but was redesignated Section 4-8 because that number was already in use for the article's cat penalties.