Burlington, NC Animal Ordinances: Coyote Management (2026)

Burlington's code does not include a general municipal ordinance authorizing coyote culls, a citywide hazing protocol, or a broad feeding prohibition. The only provision in the code that names coyotes sits inside the weapons article, City Code § 23-2, which as a general rule makes it unlawful to discharge or shoot a gun, air rifle, air pistol or similar firearm within the city limits. Subsection (b) lists exceptions to that general ban, and subsection (b)(4) is the wildlife-specific one: it authorizes a person to discharge firearms on designated property of the Alamance-Burlington Airport Authority, but only with permission from the chief of police and only under the guidelines and permits of the U.S.

Department of Agriculture's Directive for North Carolina Wildlife Services, the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission's Wildlife Depredation Permit for Animal Control, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The code states the purpose directly: the exception exists in furtherance of the Alamance-Burlington Airport Authority's comprehensive plan to further public safety and protect on-site air operations, including the airport runway and airspace, from intrusive wildlife including, but not limited to, deer, coyotes and geese. In practice, that means lethal coyote control authorized by this code is confined to permitted airport wildlife-strike prevention, not a general nuisance-coyote program available to homeowners or neighborhoods elsewhere in the city.

Anyone discharging a firearm at a coyote outside that narrow airport-authority, permit-and-chief's-permission framework is subject to section 23-3's penalty: a Class 3 misdemeanor with a fine of up to $500 or up to thirty days in jail, or both, under G.S. §§ 14-4 and 160A-175.