Tuscaloosa, AL Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

City Code Article II of Chapter 4 (Sec. 4-20 through 4-27) governs livestock, rabbits and fowl kept anywhere inside the city limits. Sec. 4-22 makes it unlawful and a public nuisance to keep livestock, rabbits or fowl closer than 300 feet to any church, school, public building, park, playground, or the residence of another person; the only carve-out is for rabbits or fowl kept purely indoors as pets or ornaments. Sec. 4-23 separately bans hogs and every other swine-family animal inside the city, with no distance cure available.

Sec. 4-24 lists ten narrow exceptions to the siting rule: licensed slaughterhouses, veterinary hospital premises, baby chicks brought in or held for sale, laboratory or scientific-institution animals, sale-barn stock held no more than 72 hours, licensed circuses, carnivals, fairs, rodeos or horse shows, riding clubs with a full-time cleanup employee and an animal-control-officer permit, city or humane-society shelter animals, and fowl kept on public or licensed private school grounds as part of a class curriculum. Sec. 4-20 bans letting any livestock, rabbit or fowl run at large citywide, and Sec.

4-21 requires every enclosure to securely confine the animals; an escape is treated as prima facie proof the pen violates the article. Sec. 4-26 requires sanitary upkeep of the premises to prevent fly or insect breeding and offensive odors, and Sec. 4-27 lets the animal control officer or health officer issue a written correction notice, giving the keeper five days to remedy the condition before continued keeping becomes a separate offense. Sec. 4-25 additionally requires a health-officer permit before hauling animal or fowl litter into any point in the city.