Lexington, KY Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Section 4-11, in Chapter 4's general animal-control article, flatly prohibits 'the keeping of hogs, goats or pigs within any area of the urban county except those zoned agricultural,' declaring the act unlawful rather than merely requiring a permit. Violators face a $5 fine, and because the section specifies that each day the violation continues is a separate offense, a pig kept for a week on residentially zoned land can generate seven citations rather than one. 1 bars any horse or other member of the equine family from running at large anywhere in the urban county, with fines that escalate from $50 for a first offense up to $500-plus for repeat offenses within a twelve-month period, and § 4-12 separately makes it unlawful to keep a bull, cow or other animal outside an agricultural zone if it 'bellows or otherwise makes such noise as to disturb the peace and quiet' of the neighborhood, fined $5 to $15 per offense.

Read together, the three sections mean Fayette County residents outside agriculturally zoned land cannot keep hogs, goats or pigs at all, must keep horses fenced in and off the loose, and cannot keep noisy cattle, the zoning classification of the property, not a permit or setback, is what controls.