Dubuque, IA Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Section 7-6A-1 makes it unlawful to sell, offer for sale, barter, or give away baby chicks, ducklings, or other fowl as pets or novelties, though hatcheries and stores may still display or sell chicks and ducklings in proper brooder facilities for commercial raising, and anyone selling baby chicks, poultry, or domestic fowl as a business must hold a state Department of Agriculture license. Section 7-6A-2 then governs livestock kept for commercial purposes: pens, buildings, yards, sheds, or enclosures housing cattle, sheep, swine, or other livestock must have concrete floors at least four inches thick with a smoothly troweled surface, draining to the City's sanitary sewer or, if none exists within 200 feet, to an approved sewage disposal system.

Dubuque carves out one exception through its Controlled Livestock Grazing Program, added by Ordinance 27-18 in 2018 and amended in December 2024: a permitted grazing contractor may temporarily keep pens or enclosures without the concrete-floor requirement, provided the setup is genuinely temporary, removed once the approved grazing term ends, and fenced to the program's own fencing standards. Section 7-6A-3 separately requires that food and feed stored in the City for chickens, cows, pigs, horses, and other animals be kept in rat-free, ratproof containers or a ratproof building, addressing the rodent risk that backyard feed storage creates.