New Orleans allows backyard hens: the Comprehensive Zoning Ordinance permits up to six chickens as an accessory use without an acreage requirement. Roosters are prohibited citywide — a 2013 amendment classified roosters among wild/exotic animals that may not be kept.
CZO Sec. 20.3.C.7 governs livestock and fowl. Up to six chickens (hens) are allowed as an accessory use in residential zones without the one-acre minimum that larger livestock require, and coops must be kept sanitary and sound in accordance with City Code Ch. 18. Roosters are separately banned: the City Council amended Ch. 18 to classify roosters as wild/exotic animals, driven by noise complaints and to reinforce the anti-cockfighting law. If animal control finds a rooster, the owner generally has 15 days to relocate it out of the parish or the LA/SPCA impounds it.
Keeping a rooster violates Ch. 18; owner must relocate within about 15 days or the LA/SPCA impounds the bird. Livestock causing odor, noise, drainage, or pest problems is a public nuisance and Ordinance violation.
Other ordinances people look up for this city. Green dot = verified primary-source excerpt.
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New Orleans has no ordinance banning home composting, so residents may compost yard and food scraps. Composting must not create odor, rodent, or nuisance con...
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New Orleans requires owners to keep weeds and grass under 10 inches on their lot and the adjoining curb strip. Overgrown, blighted lots are enforced through ...
See how Orleans Parish's chickens & livestock rules stack up against other locations.
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