Gaithersburg, MD Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

City Code Chapter 4, Article I governs keeping pigeons and other domestic fowl inside Gaithersburg city limits. Section 4-7 requires any fowl pen or enclosure to sit at least 30 feet from an inhabited dwelling other than the keeper's own home, and at least 5 feet from any adjoining property line. Fowl houses must stay dry and well-ventilated, be whitewashed inside, and cleaned at least once a week between May 1 and November 1 (more often if needed), with drinking containers kept clean and full at all times.

Manure and droppings must be removed from pens and enclosures at least once every day to prevent odor or unsightly conditions that could become a nuisance. A residential property may keep no more than six fowl unless the enclosure sits 200 feet from the nearest neighboring inhabited dwelling, a distance most in-town lots cannot meet, which functions as a de facto cap on backyard flocks. Larger livestock is treated differently: § 4-101 of the same chapter classifies domestic farm animals, including horses, roosters, cattle, pigs, sheep, llamas, alpacas and goats, as 'prohibited animals' that cannot be kept, sold, exchanged or boarded as pets anywhere in the city, subject only to a discretionary temporary permit the city manager may issue under § 4-102 when necessary for the animal's welfare.

That means a rooster in a Gaithersburg backyard is a prohibited-animal violation even though hens fall under the fowl-keeping rule. Violations of Chapter 4 are municipal infractions under § 4-26, with license, impoundment and fine schedules set by resolution of the mayor and council under § 4-27, and fines that increase with each repeat violation. Appeals of an animal control officer's order go to the animal control board within five days under § 4-28, with further appeal to the Circuit Court for Montgomery County.