East Brunswick, NJ Animal Ordinances: Coyote Management (2026)

The ban was added on 7-25-05 by Ord. No. 05-17 and sits in § 158-3(C)(2)(a) of the Code, under the heading Wildlife. To feed, the Code says, is to give, place, expose, deposit, distribute or scatter any edible material with the intention of feeding, attracting or enticing wildlife. The definition carries one carve-out: feeding does not include baiting in the legal taking of fish and/or game. Intention is built into the definition, so the food has to be put out with the aim of feeding, attracting or enticing wildlife.

Scope matters. The rule runs to every public park and to any other Township property. Section 158-2 defines a park as any park, play area, natural area, reservation, field, beach, recreation center or other area the Township owns, or uses, and devotes to active or passive recreation or natural resource management. Section 158-2 defines a county park separately, as an area the County of Middlesex owns or controls. The feeding rule is written for parks and Township property, not for private yards in East Brunswick Township.

Nearby paragraphs add to the picture. Section 158-3(C)(1) bars anyone from hunting, molesting, harming, frightening, killing, trapping, chasing, teasing, shooting or throwing missiles at any animal, reptile or bird, and § 158-6(D) adds that no person shall use, carry or possess any kind of trapping device in a park. Section 158-3(C)(2)(b) separately prohibits giving any animal, reptile or bird tobacco, alcohol or other known noxious substances.

Section 158-11(E) names the Director of Parks and all Park Rangers as protectors of all wildlife in parks and public lands. Their listed duties are to enforce the hunting ban in East Brunswick parks and public lands, to cooperate with and assist the animal control officer with the control and/or preservation of wildlife on private property in the Township, and to cooperate with state wildlife officers in conservation programs.