Mason County, WA Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Poultry and livestock keeping in the Shelton UGA's NR district is regulated as an accessory agricultural use under § 17.07.120(G)(2), not as a stand-alone permit category. The section allows agricultural uses and structures not involving retail sales on the premises only on lots or parcels of one acre or more, and ties the number of animals directly to lot size: livestock cannot exceed one for each half acre of lot area, and poultry or fowl are capped at not more than twenty birds or fowl per acre.

A quarter-acre residential lot in the NR district cannot support backyard chickens or livestock under this section at all; a one-acre lot supports up to two head of livestock and up to twenty birds. Any barn or other structure built to house or shelter the animals carries its own setback: at least thirty-five feet from every property line, and at least fifty feet from any existing residential dwelling on an adjoining lot, whichever is more restrictive on a given site. The section sits alongside the district's four-pet household cap in the next subsection and the home-occupation standards of Chapter 17.03.

Retail sale of eggs, meat, or produce from animals kept under this provision is not authorized; a resident who wants to sell what they raise needs to look at the county's separate agricultural and home-occupation rules or a special use permit.