Gary, IN Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Section 8-8(a) of the Gary Municipal Code bars anyone from letting poultry they keep, possess, or own run at large upon any street, alley, or public place within the city. Section 8-8(b) sets the core keeping rule: no person may keep poultry or pigeons, or maintain any place where they are kept, within 200 feet of the dwelling house of anyone other than the keeper or owner, though the distance rule does not apply to poultry dealers duly licensed under state law. Section 8-9(a) applies the identical 200-foot standard to horses, cattle, goats, sheep, swine, and rabbits: none may be kept within 200 feet of another person's dwelling house unless that person is the animal's keeper or owner.

Related sanitation duties sit in § 8-7(b), which requires anyone keeping horses, cattle, goats, sheep, swine, rabbits, poultry, or pigeons within the city to clean the keeping area daily and dispose of manure and offal as the board of health directs in writing. Because Chapter 8 sets no separate penalty for §§ 8-7 through 8-9, a violation is a code offense under the general animal-chapter penalty at § 8-2(a), and a conviction automatically revokes the violator's animal license or permit. Enforcement runs through the animal control center, Gary Police Department officers, and the board of health under § 8-39, and a poultry or livestock nuisance complaint can also trigger impoundment procedures under § 8-40 if the animals are found running at large.