Washington, DC Animal Ordinances: Chickens & Livestock (2026)

Section 8-1808(h)(1) is written as a blanket prohibition: no person may import into the District, possess, display, offer for sale, trade, barter, exchange, adopt, or give as a household pet any living member of the animal kingdom, including captive-bred animals, unless the species is on the enumerated exception list. That list covers domestic dogs (excluding wolf, coyote, or jackal hybrids), domestic cats (excluding ocelot or margay hybrids), domesticated rodents and rabbits, captive-bred common cage birds, nonpoisonous snakes, fish, turtles, and racing pigeons kept under a permit.

Chickens, ducks, other fowl, goats, pigs, and similar livestock are not on that list, so keeping them as pets at a District residence is not lawful. A few narrow carve-outs exist: the enumerated species may still be offered to a public zoo, park, or museum for exhibition under (h)(2); federally licensed animal exhibitors are exempt under (h)(3); the Mayor may let a licensed wildlife rehabilitator, veterinarian, or animal shelter hold a prohibited animal for treatment or disposition under (h)(4); and owners who already possessed a wolf, coyote, or jackal hybrid dog before March 17, 1993 are grandfathered under (h)(5).

Related consumer-protection rules in the same section touch poultry directly without legalizing them as pets: § 8-1808(d) bars changing the natural color of a baby chicken, duckling, other fowl, or rabbit, § 8-1808(f) bars selling any animal whose color has been changed, and § 8-1808(g) bars selling a chick or duck under 8 weeks old or a rabbit under 16 weeks old except for agricultural or scientific purposes, meaning District law contemplates poultry moving through commerce for agricultural use even though a resident can't keep one as a household pet.