East Brunswick, NJ Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

East Brunswick Township Code § 228-6.22, the permitted-use section of Article II-C for the RP-3 Rural Preservation Low Density Residential District, permits structures used for private and commercial horticultural, agricultural or forestry purposes, exclusive of greenhouses and stables housing not more than four horses for private use by the owner or leasee. The condition attached is distance: no structure or areas enclosing farm animals of any kind shall be permitted within two hundred (200) feet of any lot line. A pen, coop, run or paddock counts as an area enclosing farm animals, so the setback is measured to the fence line of the enclosure, not just to the building.

The distance is shorter in the other rural districts. In the RP Single-Family Rural Preservation District, § 228-6.3C permits farm structures on the condition that no structure or areas enclosing farm animals of any kind shall be within seventy-five (75) feet of any lot line. The RP-2 transition district (§ 228-6.14) and the R-1 Single Family Rural Residence District (§ 228-8K) print the same seventy-five (75) foot rule and add the same four-horse stable limit.

Chapter 99, Farming and Agriculture, sets the Township's right-to-farm policy. Section 99-1 recognizes the right to farm subject to the Zoning Ordinance and to health and sanitary codes, and § 99-2 includes the right to use land for grazing by animals, subject to the restrictions contained elsewhere in the Code for raising livestock. Section 99-3 lets activities reasonable and necessary for the particular farming, livestock or fowl production occur on holidays, Sundays and weekdays in the Rural Preservation Zone when conducted under generally accepted agricultural practices as promulgated by the Rutgers University School of Agriculture.

Animals must also stay put. Under § 83-14D of Chapter 83, no person shall allow any dogs, cattle, horses, swine, fowl or any other animals to run at large upon the public streets, in any public park or any other public place, or upon private property without the owner's permission.