Skowhegan, ME Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Section III of the Town of Skowhegan Animals and Fowl Ordinance covers livestock, fowl and domestic animals other than dogs, which Section IV handles separately. Subsection 1 applies to animals kept incidental to a residential use of a property. The standard is a single sentence: any livestock, fowl or domestic animal must be kept in such a manner as not to constitute a public nuisance. The text of Section III prints no flock-size cap, no coop setback and no permit step. The rule turns on whether the animals create a nuisance.

The ordinance defines what a public nuisance is in Section II. An owner's failure to control an animal counts when the animal produces maggots, flies, odors, or unclean conditions sufficient to annoy or endanger adjacent property owners, residents, or other individuals who are reasonably exposed to those conditions. A public nuisance also includes an animal that is at large, meaning off the owner's premises and not under the owner's control, or one that chases vehicles or molests, attacks or interferes with other persons and animals on public or private property. The definition of owner is broad: anyone owning, keeping, harboring or in possession of an animal, and the parent or guardian of a minor who keeps one.

Enforcement is complaint driven. On complaint, the Animal Control Officer or a Police Officer can give the owner, or the person keeping the animals, notice to abate the nuisance within ten days. Only after those ten days pass does the penalty clause apply. The ordinance was adopted July 16, 1973, amended March 8, 1999 and amended June 13, 2022, and its stated purpose is to control dogs and other domesticated animals in the interest of the health, safety and general welfare of Skowhegan residents and their animals.

Because Skowhegan has no general zoning ordinance in the set of ordinances posted by the Town, this nuisance standard is the Town's rule for keeping hens, goats or similar animals. Shoreland and site-review provisions apply only to land and projects those ordinances cover.