Vermilion Parish, LA Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Article III of Chapter 6 of the Vermilion Parish Code has three sections. Section 6-169 defines livestock broadly: cattle, buffalo, bison, oxen and other bovine; horses, mules, donkeys and other equine; sheep; goats; swine; domestic rabbits; aquaculture animals in enclosed artificial reservoirs on private property; imported exotic deer and antelope, elk, farm-raised white tailed deer and other farm-raised exotic animals; chickens, turkeys and other poultry; and animals under the jurisdiction of the commissioner of agriculture and forestry. An owner of livestock is any person owning or having control of it, and a public highway is any public way for vehicular traffic including the bridges, culverts and structures tied to it.

Section 6-170 is the operative rule. No person owning livestock can knowingly, willfully or negligently permit it to be at large on the public highways of any ward of any parish where livestock is presently prohibited from roaming at large, or of any ward that later adopts a stock law. Section 6-171 sends impoundment of livestock found roaming on public highways or roads, and the related procedures, to R.S. 3:3002 et seq. as the Code itself directs. The Police Jury's article prints no minimum lot size, no flock cap and no permit for keeping chickens.

Other Code sections touch poultry and fowl. In Article II of Chapter 6, fowl means chickens, turkeys, guineas, pheasants, quail, ostriches, emus, ducks or geese, while that article's own definition of livestock is narrower: any horse, mule, donkey, hog, cattle, sheep or goat. Section 6-85(3) makes it a public nuisance when a pet animal at large chases or attacks wildlife, including birds, or livestock on property the pet's owner does not own or exclusively occupy, whether or not the pet injures or destroys them. Section 32-39 requires refuse from cleaning fish, fowl, game or livestock to be packaged in a sealed plastic bag and placed in a trash container approved by the Police Jury before it is placed for collection. The exotic animal permit in § 6-80 is a separate rule for exotic species.