Parma, OH Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

09, Prohibited Animals, bans backyard poultry and farm livestock outright rather than regulating them by permit. Division (b) prohibits owning or keeping any fowl, including but not limited to domestic geese, ducks, turkeys, and chickens, within the city limits, with only two narrow carve-outs: schools may raise chicks and/or ducks for educational purposes, but must give the fowl to an authorized farm no later than two weeks after hatching. Division (d) separately bans livestock outright, naming horses, mules, cattle, sheep, goats, and swine, so a residential lot cannot keep any of those animals regardless of lot size.

The only broad exemption in the section is division (f), which carves out the Stearns Homestead at Permanent Parcel 450-18-1, operated by the Parma Historical Society, allowing it to keep and maintain horses, mules, cattle, sheep, goats, swine, dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, geese, and similar farm animals for public display. Division (e) also lets licensed pet shops, menageries, zoological gardens, and circuses keep otherwise-prohibited exotic animals if the location conforms to the Zoning Code, quarters are sanitary and escape-proof, and no one resides within 50 feet, but that carve-out does not extend to backyard fowl or livestock under (b) and (d).

Anyone who violates division (b) or (d) is guilty of a misdemeanor of the third degree, with each day of continued noncompliance treated as a separate offense, enforced by the Police Division and animal control officers under Ordinance 45-06 as amended by Ordinance 35-10.